B.C.’s premier and public safety minister are condemning the vandalism of Canada’s oldest surviving synagogue and pledging to support police and the community while an investigation is underway. The Victoria Police Department was called to the Congregation Emanu-el Synagogue on Saturday around 8 a.m. “Officers documented the graffiti, and collected evidence, and then worked with City of Victoria to have it removed,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver was among the groups who shared an image of the statements scrawled on one of the columns flanking the building’s front entrance on social media, along with a statement. The federation’s CEO, Ezra Shanken, also spoke to CTV news Sunday. “This is a synagogue that had been vocally helping to try to bring the care the Palestinians deserve. This is a progressive synagogue, which also tells you that it is about the Jews, isn’t it?” he said. “Because what you’re saying by scrawling this on a synagogue that has been active in a in a meaningful way, is that there’s nothing that we can do that makes us not evil.” He described the statement as an manifesto and urged policymakers to pursue criminal charges against hateful messaging such as this, which includes allusions to centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes. “I think this should be a wake up call that antisemitism is a Canadian problem and needs to be dealt with as any other form of hate against any individual group,” Shanken went on to say. “So I think that we have a responsibility when we see something that is so pointed, so offensive, so unacceptable that we don’t just meet it with words, but we meet it with action.” Provincial officials posted statements to social media decrying the message. “Hate has no place in our province,” wrote Public Safety Minister Nina Krieger, whose constituency is in Victoria. “Antisemitism has no place in British Columbia. Hate vandalism, speech and intimidation are not protected expressions — they are crimes and will be treated as such. The province of B.C. stands with our Jewish community, and with all people vulnerable to hate and violence.” Premier David Eby echoed the sentiment. “Antisemitism has no place in our communities – not now, not ever,” he wrote. “The Jewish community and police have our full support as they investigate this disgusting act of hate.” The investigation is ongoing, according to police, who said they have no further information to share about the incident. First built in 1863, the synagogue is a national historic site of Canada.
