Readers lament the lack of support being shown for Canada's Jewish community in the face of virulent antisemitism

Re: Justin Trudeau just can’t stop appeasing Israel’s enemies — Jesse Kline, Nov. 15

I spent a few days in southern Florida last week and I couldn’t help but notice that every Jewish synagogue and school had two police cars parked outside with two officers in each car. It was a jarring sight but I can assure you that the Jewish residents of those communities were reassured by the police presence.

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I also heard local and state politicians forcefully condemn Hamas atrocities and wholeheartedly support Israel’s right to self-defence. They also denounced, in unequivocal terms, the Jew-hatred being spewed on American campuses and in the streets by pro-Hamas supporters.

I get back to Canada, and what do I see in response to the crowds screaming for the extermination of the Jewish people, the fire-bombing of synagogues and bullets being fired at Jewish schools? I hear Montreal’s mayor and our prime minister pulling out the same old go-to: “This is not who we are.”

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if our politicians, instead of mouthing empty platitudes, actually took concrete steps to protect the Jewish community?

When Jewish institutions are attacked, when Jewish people are afraid to wear yarmulkes in public, when thousands of our fellow citizens are comfortable about openly embracing the genocide of the Jewish people, that is a time when politicians must act forcefully and with at least a minimal amount of moral certitude.

The city of Montreal and the province of Quebec should provide the security that Jewish institutions sadly require. It is absolutely shameful that the Jewish community has to provide and pay for their own security. Police officers should be stationed on the grounds of Jewish schools, synagogues, libraries and Holocaust museums for the foreseeable future, at least until the very real threat has passed.

It is beyond comprehension that so many of our non-Jewish countrymen seem unfazed by the collective trauma being experienced by their Jewish neighbours. I pray that my fellow Canadians come to recognize the truth of the Nazi-like character of the........

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