Swastikas Mar Historic Orthodox Synagogue in Montreal

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April 1, 2023, 5 PM ET

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Vandals painted swastikas on a historic Montreal synagogue earlier this week. The hateful symbols were discovered on the front doors and adjacent brick facade of the Bagg Street Shul, Quebec’s “oldest living synagogue building,” which traces its origins back to around 1900. The Orthodox congregation is the only active synagogue on the site, which once housed more than two dozen congregations.

We're horrified by this #antisemitic vandalism of a historic synagogue in #Montreal.

This vile act shows us that Jew-hatred is alive and well in Canada, and it's time for allies to join the Jewish community in confronting it. https://t.co/tpdUGu8l2T
— Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (@CanadianFSWC) March 29, 2023

It became a local heritage site in 1998. “This vile act shows us that Jew-hatred is alive and well in Canada, and it’s time for allies to join the Jewish community in confronting it,” Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted. B’nai Brith Canada tweeted: “The cowardly act of spray painting Nazi symbols on Jewish institutions must be universally denounced by all and perpetrators prosecuted.”

B'nai Brith Canada condemns the clear act of antisemitism that occurred today at the historic Bagg Street Shul. The cowardly act of spray painting Nazi symbols on Jewish institutions must be universally denounced by all and perpetrators prosecuted. #polmtl pic.twitter.com/k7BIGmrh4Y
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) March 28, 2023

Michal Cotler-Wunsh, a former Knesset member and human-rights advocate, also posted a photo of the vandalized synagogue on Twitter.

Heartbreaking. 102 yr old Bagg Street Shul in my hometown of Montréal, is the sole survivor of a vanished Jewish past in its neighbourhood & still houses a flourishing religious community.

Today it was defaced w/nazi symbols in testament to rising #Antisemitism. #NeverAgain pic.twitter.com/Jhhba6XuKK
— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) March 28, 2023

“Heartbreaking,” she wrote. “Bagg Street Shul in my hometown of Montreal is the sole survivor of a vanished Jewish past in its neighborhood and still houses a flourishing religious community.” Cotler-Wunsch moved to the city from Israel when she was 8 after her mother married Irwin Cotler, a former member of the Canadian Parliament who served for several years as Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism.