Saturday, August 20th, 2005
Vandals dump holy books into lake, toilets at Quebec Jewish camp
By: The Canadian Press Email Story Printer Friendly Version
MONTREAL — Young members of a Montreal Hasidic community spent Friday fishing out holy books thrown into a lake after an overnight break-in at their camp.
About 300 sacred books were dumped into toilets and a nearby lake at a summer camp in Val Morin, about 60 kilometres northwest of Montreal.
Vandals broke into the synagogue used by the camp's Belz members, a sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews. The intruders would have also gotten their hands on the Torah scrolls inside the synagogue had they not been stored in a safe, said Yinkel Binet, president of the congregation.
While the camp has been targeted before in incidents that included damaged property and swastikas drawn on buildings, this is the worst case in its 15-year history, Binet said.
''It shows a real deep hatred,'' he added.
''They took a chance (breaking in), it means they're ready to take chances, risks, to do something which they believe is right.''
Pierre Delage, manager of the municipality of Val Morin, said he hadn't heard of past cases of vandalism, adding he would consider a police presence if the camp's directors wrote to him with that request.
http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=1269
