JEWISH SCHOOL FIREBOMBED

12Teens Escape Firebombing Of Jewish School

Tuesday, September 5, 2006-09-06

Masked man targeted room they'd occupied

The Gazette

JAN RAVENSBERGEN, ALANA COATES of The Gazette contributed to this report

Monday, September 04, 2006

The masked man who firebombed an Orthodox Jewish school in Outremont on the weekend initially aimed his burning Molotov cocktail at the window of a classroom occupied only 20 minutes earlier by at least 12 teenage boys, surveillance tapes show.

The man, who is believed by police to be in his 20s, remains at large.

The tapes show 12 religious-school students who spent Friday evening in the classroom leaving along the school's front sidewalk between 11:40 p.m. and 11:42 p.m.

As many as 20 students - age 14 to 16 - usually attend the regular Sabbath evening dinner and get-together in the classroom the firebomber initially targeted, school president Alfred Gestetner said.

At two minutes past midnight Saturday, the tapes show, the man lit a Molotov cocktail on the sidewalk in front of the Skver-Toldos Jewish Boys School and approached the classroom's window, immediately west of the school's main entrance.

He cocked his arm as if to fire the Molotov through the glass - but hesitated, possibly noticing a window screen visible only at close range.

The man instead turned to the school's main entrance, a few steps away.

He launched the still-burning Molotov through a glass panel next to the main doors and fled as light flared from the explosion.

The attack caused damages initially estimated in the range of $20,000 to $60,000 - and sent shudders through Montreal's Jewish community and elsewhere.

Police have launched an investigation but aren't labelling the attack a hate crime "at this time," said Constable Benoit Couture, because the attacker didn't provide a written message or leave graffiti indicating his motive.

For the time being, he added, police are treating this as an arson probe.

Gestetner said police have assured him that three extra patrol cars have been exclusively earmarked to keep a close eye on Jewish institutions in the area. The school is on Ducharme Ave., slightly west of Bloomfield Ave.

Whatever the judicial definition of a hate crime, the firebombing "is a dangerous, despicable act of hate," said Leah Berger, co-coordinator of community and government relations for the Quebec region of B'nai Brith Canada.

"The violent targeting of a religious building cannot be tolerated by our society," said Jeffrey Boro, Quebec president of the Canadian Jewish Congress. He condemned "this anti-Semitic act."

The volume of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada registered with B'nai Brith has tripled since the start of hostilities in the Middle East in July, Berger said.

Montreal's Sun Youth Organization offered a $5,000 reward to anyone furnishing details that lead to the firebomber's arrest and conviction. Sid Stevens, executive vice-president, described the donor as a French-Canadian businessman who wishes to remain otherwise anonymous.

The same businessman promised a $15,000 reward when the United Talmud Torahs elementary school in St. Laurent was firebombed in spring 2004, destroying its library.

After St. Laurent, Stevens said, "this is the second-most-worrisome incident" of this nature he can recall.

"There's been nothing in any way close to this going back to the Second World War" in the Montreal region, he said.

The fresh firebombing is "very, very disturbing," school president Gestetner said.

But "police still have to complete their investigation" before he'll declare this a hate crime, he said.

"Things have been very peaceful here for 30 years," added Gestetner, also president of the 300-family Toldos Yakov Yosef Skver synagogue, a congregation formed three decades ago.

The synagogue has operated the males-only school - currently with about 250 students age 2 to 16 - for the past 25 years. It runs a separate girls-only school nearby with about 350 students.

janr@thegazette.canwest.com

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2006