Police launched an investigation Monday into the vandalism of Jewish centers and synagogues in the Montreal area over the weekend.
Rock throwers smashed the windows of three synagogues in the boroughs of Hampstead and Cote St-Luc, and a Jewish school and a kindergarten in Cote St-Luc overnight Saturday, a police spokesman said.
According to Rabbi Reuben Poupko of the Jewish Community Security Coordinating Committee, Dorshei Emet, Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem, Beth Rambam and Beth Zion, as well as Yavneh Academy were vandalized.
The attacks took place sometime between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
Speaking to broadcaster CTV, he said the vandals were "cowards who act under the cover of darkness, who fling rocks in the middle of the night."
"They will not determine how the Jewish community behaves or gathers for prayer or for study," he added.
"We will continue to use our institutions despite these continued assaults on our buildings," he said.
Montreal's Jewish community fears it is being targeted in an orchestrated campaign of hatred.
"Following what appears to be an orchestrated campaign of anti-Semitic attacks, there is particular concern about the targeting of a school and daycare," the B’nai Brith organization said.
Police suspect the attacks are related. They have no eyewitnesses but are hoping surveillance video might offer some clues.
B’nai Brith says it's now time to review any past vandalism at Jewish institutions that may have been written off as isolated incidents. The organization says it looks like the community is being targeted.
The group said this weekend's attacks brought back "painful memories" of the firebombing of the city's United Talmud Torah School.
The school was torched just before Passover in 2004. Local men Sleiman El-Merhebi and Simon Zogheib were charged in the case, which made international headlines and drew donations to help rebuild the school's library.
"We probably do have to add some surveillance cameras," said Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz of the Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem Synagogue, which was vandalized in Côte St-Luc.
"It's not the end of the world, but it's not the way the world should be," he said.
"I think as Jews we've developed a defence mechanism when an act of anti-Semitism is relatively small, we kind of shrug it off.
"Certainly things in Montreal are a lot better than they were 50 years ago, or in Europe 100 years ago. But, at the same time, it's completely unacceptable," Steinmetz said.
"You shudder to think, the guy who threw the rock, what he would do to one of my little kids if they were walking around the streets and he got a hold of them alone. I mean, he's throwing that rock through the window because he hates Jews."
Around 100,000 Jews live in Montreal.