Mezuzahs stolen from Toronto apartment building in suspected hate crime

The Toronto Police Service is investigating a suspected hate crime after mezuzahs were removed from the doors of apartments in North York yesterday, The Canadian Jewish News reports.

A mezuzah is a rolled-up scroll of parchment that Jewish families hang on the frame of their front doors, usually in a decorative case.

According to the report, mezuzahs were removed from three doors, all on the same floor of a residential apartment complex. One of the mezuzahs, which belonged to a Holocaust survivor, was found discarded on the floor, it adds.

The incident comes after some 20 mezuzahs were stolen from residents of an apartment building in the same area of North York earlier in December.

Neighborhood Councilor James Pasternak says that the “disturbing incident” is “another example of the hate that has infected [Toronto], often as a result of incitement from the mobs on the streets and online hate.”

He calls for “universal condemnation” of the incident, and “consequences” for the perpetrators.