A Regina rabbi and his children were home safe, watching the glowing lights of their menorah on Saturday night when news broke of a violent knife attack at the home of a rabbi in New York state.
“I was thinking that the same thing could have been happening here,” Rabbi Avrohom Simmonds, of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Centre, told Global News Tuesday. “We could have been hosting a whole houseful of people as well, celebrating Hanukkah, as there were thousands around the world doing exactly the same thing at that time.”
On Saturday night, the seventh night of Hanukkah, a man allegedly burst into a private gathering in Monsey, N.Y., and stabbed and wounded five people. He has been arrested and is charged with multiple counts of attempted murder and hate crimes.
To Simmonds, the seemingly targeted hatred is not new. Jewish people have faced persecution throughout history. In the past, he said he’s personally been verbally assaulted by strangers who recognized him as Jewish.
“Most of our Jewish holidays are a celebration of Jewish freedom and overcoming those who oppressed us throughout history,” Simmonds said.
“The simplest approach is to curl up inside and hide it all,” he said. “That’s not going to help the Jewish people, help us for the future. We need to stand up tall and proud and say no matter what’s going to happen, hate is not going to win.”
The most recent data on police-reported crime from Statistics Canada showed hate crimes targeting the Jewish population accounted for 19 per cent of all police-reported hate crimes in Canada last year, the highest rate of religious-based hate crimes reported to police.
Simmonds, from Winnipeg, said since moving to Regina, he has not been subjected to hateful vitriol. His counterpart in Saskatoon, Rabbi Raphael Kats, noted he has not experienced such prejudice in Saskatchewan, either.
There are only a few hundred Jewish families in the province. To maintain traditions, Kats said they have to be actively involved in their community.
Both rabbis emphasize how those practicing Judaism in Saskatchewan have been met with wide support. That is not the case everywhere.
Earlier this month, there was a deadly shooting at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey. In France, more than 100 Jewish graves were painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic symbols. In the United Kingdom, graffiti featuring Stars of David and the numbers 9/11 were spray-painted on a synagogue.
The recent rise in anti-Semitic violence hasn’t gone unnoticed around the world.
A synagogue in the Netherlands that once counted over 1,000 members among its congregation on high holidays no longer posts its prayer services online and now operates on an invitation-only basis due to growing anti-Semitism in Europe
“I would say to anybody that’s facing discrimination, never allow the hatred to win,” Kats said. “The natural response, of course, might be to retreat, to hid, but that’s not the right way to go about things.”
Simmonds echoes that sentiment. He encourages his children to embrace their faith and the traditions long associated with it.
“This is not the first time, unfortunately, that there’s been such oppression against the Jewish people,” he said. “No matter what happens around us, we will always stand up strong and tall and continue to practice our beliefs and share with others that light and kindness.”