Jewish Montrealers enter high holidays with increased security at synagogues

Jewish Montrealers are celebrating some of their most important holidays with bolstered security as the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel brings with it pain and concerns for their safety. 

Synagogues usually have an "open door" policy during the high holidays, but this time around security guards and cameras will greet congregants who, in some cases, need to wear wristbands to get in, says Yair Szlak, president and CEO of the Jewish advocacy group Federation CJA.

"There's no specific threat [now] and yet there's this environment of intimidation that has been felt throughout North America," he said. "We have to make sure that Jews don't retreat from Jewish life because then, by the way, our enemies have beat us."

Montreal police echo that no new threats against the community have surfaced, but as deputy chief Vincent Richer says, they remain vigilant. Efforts involve increasing patrols in neighbourhoods with a large Jewish presence over the next 24 days.

He says hate crimes and incidents (non-criminal acts) spiked after Oct. 7, 2023,  when Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel, killing over 1,000 people and taking some 250 hostages to the Gaza Strip.

Helena Plachcinski says she's felt a lot of tension in the air since then.

Plachcinski is Polish and when her dad, a Holocaust survivor, brought his family over to Canada he made a point of saying there was no war, just peace here, she says.

"I know what it means to be a Jew in an unfriendly society," said Plachcinski, adding that she's happy about the extra security measures. 

"I will go because it's my duty to show that I'm not afraid," she said.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) has recorded 288 hate crimes and incidents against Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities with 213 targeted at the former and 75 at the latter. These include crimes against a person, like assault, and crimes against property.

Szlak suspects the numbers are higher due to under-reporting by the community.

Over the last year, Jewish institutions in Montreal have been defaced, shot at and been on the receiving end of Molotov cocktails. More recently, several were the target of a mass email bomb threat.

"We've seen the entire gambit during the last 11 almost 12 months and we always fear that we haven't seen the worst of it," said Szlak.

He worries that Iran's missile attack against Israel earlier this week will provoke a reaction on the streets of Montreal as was the case last October.