Montreal Jews seek $10 million to secure community institutions

Canadian Jews are looking to raise $10 million to provide security to communal institutions in Montreal.

The Federation CJA, one of Canada’s largest Jewish organizations, said it has partnered with 31 Jewish institutions as part of its Community Security Network initiative and hired an outside firm to help develop strategies for protecting the community, the Canadian Jewish News reported Tuesday. The new strategy will focus on surveillance technology.

The Canadians have looked south for some help, consulting among others Michael Masters, the national director of the Secure Community Network, a US American program of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

In July, new crime data released by Statistics Canada showed that Canadian Jews remained the most targeted minority group for hate crimes in the country for the third year in a row, though there was a 4 percent decrease.

The number of incidents dropped to 345 from 360 in 2017. Other minorities saw more significant declines. Hate crimes against Muslims fell 50%, to 173, and blacks saw a 15% drop to 283.

On Saturday, two Jewish boys wearing kippas were assaulted in a Toronto suburb while they were walking. The incident came on the heels of an assault on a Jewish man wearing a kippa in Montreal.