A shooting outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue, in Belleville, Ont., Sunday night as congregants gathered for Kol Nidre services on the eve of Yom Kippur has prompted condemnation and calls for stronger action to protect Jewish communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ontario\u2019s Special Investigations Unit said a 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun exchanged gunfire with police outside the synagogue. Const. Jeff Smith, who was stationed there for security, was seriously wounded; at press time, he was in intensive care, but in stable condition. The gunman suffered life-threatening injuries and died in hospital Monday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJewish Canadians should not need armed police outside their synagogues simply to pray safely,\u201d the Centre for Israel and Jewish <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Affairs and Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA said in a joint statement, adding: \u201cNo more thoughts and prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre said, \u201cNo Jewish community should ever have to take cover inside a synagogue as gunfire erupts outside,\u201d while praising Smith for protecting the congregation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
B\u2019nai Brith Canada also condemned the violence and reiterated concerns about the security of Jewish institutions amid rising antisemitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Mark Carney said, \u201cJewish people must be able to worship safely. To live free, open, proud Jewish lives,\u201d pledging federal support for the investigation and prosecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A shooting outside Sons of Jacob Synagogue, in Belleville, Ont., Sunday night as congregants gathered for Kol Nidre services on the eve of Yom Kippur has prompted condemnation and calls for stronger action to protect Jewish communities. Ontario\u2019s Special Investigations Unit said a 29-year-old man armed with a shotgun exchanged gunfire with police outside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49512,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[801,25050,6716],"class_list":["post-49897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","tag-antisemitism","tag-belleville","tag-hate-crimes"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49898,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49897\/revisions\/49898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}