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Comments (0)Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada rose to record levels, according to B’nai Brith Canada’s annual audit.
The yearly survey released Wednesday showed an 11.4 percent increase in incidents in 2009 over the previous year to reach the highest number ever reported in the audit’s 28-year history.
There were 1,264 anti-Jewish incidents last year, which encompassed acts of harassment, vandalism and violence. That compares to 1,135 incidents in 2008, and represents a five-fold increase over the last decade, B’nai Brith’s League for Human Rights said.
The highest number of incidents for the year, 209, occurred in January, coinciding with Israel’s war in Gaza, noted Frank Dimant, executive vice president of B’nai Brith Canada.
Last year in Canada saw 884 cases of harassment, 348 of vandalism and a doubling from 2008 of acts of violence, at 32.
The majority of incidents, 672, occurred in Ontario. That represents a slight drop over 2008 of 1.5 percent, while incidents in the Greater Toronto Area decreased by 11 percent. However, incidents in other parts of Ontario rose by nearly 50 percent.
There were 373 incidents in Quebec, a 52.5 percent rise over the 2008 data. Of these, 319 incidents took place in Montreal, representing an increase of 58.7 percent over the year before.
Nationally there were 111 incidents targeting Jews in their own homes, compared to 105 in 2008, and 137 incidents on university campuses, well above the 76 reported in 2008.
Another spike in incidents occurred just before Yom Kippur, when 10 synagogues were vandalized across the country, including four in Quebec on one night.
Dimant specifically cited an Islamic community newspaper, which accused Jews and Israelis of mass organ trafficking.
Alleged Nazi Zentai Appeals Extradition
An alleged Nazi war criminal living in Australia has appealed to the Human Rights Commission in a bid to avoid extradition to his native Hungary.
The lawyer for Charles (Karoly) Zentai this week asked commission President Catherine Branson to intervene, the Australian Associated Press reported Tuesday, on the grounds that there was no guarantee that Hungary could ensure a fair trial, especially in the absence of witnesses.
Zentai, 88, of Perth, is facing allegations in Hungary that he helped murder Jewish teenager Peter Balasz in Budapest in November 1944.
Zentai has vehemently denied the claim since he was first arrested by Australian Federal Police in 2005 after a Simon Wiesenthal Center investigation helped flushed out information on his whereabouts.
The Human Rights Commission cannot supersede the legal processes of Zentai’s extradition but could help Zentai pay for his legal fight against extradition.
Zentai’s appeal is scheduled to begin March 31 in Perth Federal Court.
Kosher Restaurant Opens in Moscow
A kosher restaurant featuring Bukharian Jewish food opened in the heart of Moscow.
Seven-Forty is owned by Ben Binyaminov, the president of the Congress of Bukharian Jews of Russia and the CIS, according to the Web site of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. The teahouse hired eight chefs from Tashkent.
Among those attending the recent opening were LevLeviev, president of the World Congress of Bukharian Jews as well as the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS; a chief rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar; and Alexander Boroda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia.
Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries supervised the change-over to a kosher restaurant.