Investigation launched after shots fired at Toronto's Jewish school
The Canadian police are investigating an attack that occurred on Saturday morning. An unknown assailant fired shots at a Jewish girls' elementary school in Toronto. A specialized unit focused on investigating hate crimes is involved in the proceedings. Thankfully, no one was injured in the attack.
5:26 AM EDT, May 26, 2024
The targeted school is Bais Chaya Mushka. Surveillance cameras recorded the moment of the attack. Police do not rule out that it could have been a terrorist act.
"We will not ignore the obvious, what happened, and what the targets of the shots were," Inspector Paul Krawczyk from the police group dealing with firearm and gang-related crimes stated on Saturday. However, he emphasized that, for now, the police do not present any hypotheses.
Police reported that on Saturday, just before 5 AM Eastern Time, two people were seen in a car from which the shots were most likely fired. Evidence confirming the shots was also found.
Anti-semitic attack in Canada. Jews outraged
Michael Levitt, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, spoke out. In a statement on Saturday, he wrote that the attack on the school must "serve as a wake-up call" for politicians. He also called on local authorities to take "decisive action".
"This is a brazen and cowardly attempt to intimidate the Jewish community. I want to make it clear that we will not hide" - Levitt wrote on social media.
According to police data, in Toronto in 2024, 56 percent of hate crime victims were Jews. In 2023, there were 5,791 cases of anti-Semitism reported in Canada, and in 2022, there were 2,769 such incidents. These include attempts to set fire to a synagogue and a Jewish center in Montreal, throwing eggs at a Holocaust memorial in Calgary, and an increasing number of anti-Semitic graffiti.
In many countries, the number of anti-Semitic incidents rose after the outbreak of the war between Israel and Palestine last fall.
