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Montreal Jewish school vandalised

My old high school was vandalised over the weekend with antisemitic graffiti:

Staff from the United Talmud Torah elementary school and Herzliah High School in St. Laurent were busy removing anti-Semitic graffiti from their doors and windows yesterday.

The building that is shared by the two schools was struck by vandals overnight. They covered two entrances and several windows with messages including “Free Palestine” and “Die Sharon.”

This is extremely unsettling and disturbing to me, who spent 5 years dragging myself to that building on a daily basis. I may have felt imprisoned by the endless math, chemistry, and Talmud classes, watching the endless seconds tick off the clock until the final bell . . . but I never felt threatened.

Luckily it was just a bit of graffiti – most likely written by idiot kids – but nevertheless, the swastikas and disgusting slogans that were pictured in the print version of the Gazette are cause for concern in light of the rise in antisemitism around the world. It’s a reminder that, as secure as we may feel in our home and community, we’re never really entirely safe.

{ 3 comments… add one }
  • Geoff 05.21.03, 12:52 PM

    Yeah my girlfriend, who also went to Herzliah, was pretty pissed too. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised in this day and age.

  • tali 05.22.03, 4:47 AM

    I love how the news story plays up that a similar attack happened recently at a Muslim school. Bigotry and vandalism are bad wherever they happen, and should be condemned.There is, however, no reason to mention the other incident here. The two are almost certainly unrelated, since one involved pro-Arab, and the other anti-Arab graffiti.

    The only reason to relate the two is to suggest that the “score” is now somehow “even.” This further legitimizes the idea that Canadian Arabs and Jews are natural enemies – and they are one-to-one in a sort of suffering competition. It also seems to hint that the columnist sees Jews as likely perpetrators of the earlier anti-Muslim attack, and that the attack on the school should be seen as a sort of retaliation.

    The columnist should be reminded that, in general, the conflicts of the Middle East do not play themselves out in Canadian highschools. (Thank goodness!)

  • Dr_Funk 05.24.03, 4:37 PM

    The graffiti at the Muslim school sounds like garden variety French-Canadian xenophobism. The graffiti at the jewish schools sounds a bit more organized. The specifically anti-Israel, rather than generally anti-semitic, slogans are a matter of concern. And indicative of either Arab students or of Arab sympathisers from the University or elsewhere.

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