Canadian police have opened a hate crime investigation after two Jewish boys were assaulted in an apparent anti-Semitic incident in Toronto on Saturday.
According to B’nai Brith Canada, the unidentified minors were walking in the suburb of Thornhill when they were accosted by another youth who verbally abused them, then punched one of them in the face and followed them as they attempted to leave the area. Both Jewish boys were wearing kippas, Times of Israel reports.
The victims were unable to record the incident because it took place on the Sabbath, when observant Jews do not carry electronic devices such as cellphones.
One of the victims later visited the emergency department to seek treatment for his injuries, said a statement from B’nai Brith.
“This is an extremely serious incident, and we trust that law enforcement will give it the attention that it deserves,” said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B’nai Brith Canada.
“It is inconceivable that Jewish families will be afraid to send their children to the park, in a heavily Jewish neighborhood, on the Jewish Sabbath,” he added.
Saturday’s attack followed an anti-Semitic attack in Montreal last week in which a Jewish man was assaulted by a taxi driver amid a barrage of anti-Semitic slurs.
The victim was visiting his elderly parents at a condo building in the Saint-Laurent borough of Montreal.
sigal! are your boys ok?
rendered speechless…
our history..we will remain strong.
netz
Last fall, four boys from the Lubavitch Yeshivah Zal in Toronto were attacked while walking back to the dorms from seder on a Sunday night, in North York.
B’nei Brith of Canada was WONDERFUL to the talmidim in the aftermath of that incident. My hat’s off to them!
Please Hashem there was a surveillance camera in this recent Thornhill attack? This sounds like a much worse incident, R”L.
COLLive: Please keep us posted on developments following this latest incident!
I wish I had known this article was written. I found out today when my son came home from shul and all the kids were talking about it. There was no indication at all that he punched the boy because he was Jewish. He punched him because he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time”. He was a stupid teenager not some raging anti-Semite.When he was asked why he did it, he just said “bc I felt like it”. And as a side note, he got a serious beating by a bunch of Jewish men playing basketball when… Read more »
Are you sure? Why would “I felt like it” mean it was not a hate crime? Is there a part of Thornhill that’s “the wrong place” for two Jewish boys to be on a Shabbos day?
Your post brings up more questions than answers: Jewish men playing basketball on Shabbos? And they beat someone up? ALL ON SHABBOS? Are you sure?