Video has surfaced of a masked suspect vandalizing a synagogue in North York that police say has been targeted nine other times this year.
Officers were called to the Kehillat Shaarei Torah temple on Bayview Avenue, south of Highway 401, at approximately 6:45 a.m. for reports of smashed windows.
Four windows were damaged in total, police told CP24, and the suspect is outstanding.
“The suspect is described as late teens to early 20s, thin build, wearing a medical mask, and a dark blue jacket/hoodie,” police said
They add that the suspect was wearing black pants and black shoes with white markings.
The surveillance video, which was supplied by the synagogue, shows the suspect running around the building and jumping to smash the windows with what appears to be a hammer.
The timestamp in the video shows that the vandalism occurred shortly after 4:31 a.m.
In an email to CTV News Toronto, a spokesperson for the temple said the suspect scaled a fence that was erected around the building, through the federal government’s Canada Community Security Program (CCSP) grant.
Police are now investigating the incident as “hate-motivated mischief.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-3500, or Crime Stoppers anonymously.
‘The idea is to disrupt’: Rabbi reacts to latest act of vandalism
Rabbi Joe Kanofsky says Kehillat Shaarei Torah was established 45 years ago by people from across Toronto, Canada, and the world over as a place to come together and worship.
“Where we just thank God for the good life that we have, and pray for peace and good things for the whole world around us, and try to work for that. So this is obviously pretty contrary to everything we believe and everything we think,” he told CP24 on Tuesday.
Despite the vandalism, Kanofsky said that he and the members of the synagogue will do their best to go about their business as the police investigation gets underway.
“The idea (of the vandalism) is to disrupt. So we had our service this morning, at seven o’clock, we had a full quorum show up, and we continue to do what we do.”
