The Shattered Peace of Belleville's Jewish Community

 

       Bullet holes in the stained glass windows of the Sons of Jacob synagogue, Belleville, Ontario

As we listened to the CBC Radio national news this morning we were startled to hear of a serious police-involved community of Belleville, Ontario. An exchange of gunfire took place of the Sons of Jacob synagogue last evening as the service to mark the beginning of Yom Kippur commenced. A police officer and an armed assailant were injured and there is little doubt that this was a targeted attack on the Jewish community, a hate crime. The photo, above. was taken from inside the synagogue by one of the congregants and shows bullet holes in a stained glass window.

Belleville is a city of under 60,000 residents and the Jewish population is small. Even on such an important Holy Day there were only 20 or so congregants in the building at the time. The 1950s building itself isn't notable although the exterior menorah clearly identifies it as a Jewish place of worship. We usually drive past it a couple of times a week as we make our downtown. 

When I was in ministry at Bridge St. United Church, just a few blocks away, I wrote a letter of solidarity to the congregation during a rash of anti-Jewish hate crimes in Canada. Other than that I had no interaction with the community but I have often wondered about how this small group feels in the midst of a disturbing rise of anti-Jewish words and actions in this country and around the world. Anti-Semitism is a centuries-old poison, an irrational hatred given that Jesus and his first followers were Jewish and firmly rooted in their religion. Of course, hatred is so often irrational and rooted in prejudices and lies. 

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day in Judaism and marks the end of ten days of reflection and repentance. It seems to me that our society needs to enter into a fuller outlook of repentance, education, and protection for the Jewish population of Canada. Canada has the fourth largest Jewish community in the world behind Israel, the United States, and France with roughly 350,000 members. This is, in part, because the Jewish populations of European countries were largely destroyed during the Holocaust or Shoah of the Nazi regime. Canada must remain a safe home for Jews rather than becoming a place of fear 

Today I pray for the traumatized members of the  Sons of Jacob congregation, for anxious Jewish communities across this country which upholds religious freedom, and around the world.