Montreal Police arrested a man suspected of attempting to commit an arson attack on a synagogue on Thursday night, Canadian media reported on Friday.
Officers were dispatched to Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Montreal's main Reform synagogue, at around midnight on Thursday, local time. Emergency responders received a 911 call about someone attempting to start a fire at the place of worship.
The 38-year-old suspect, yet unnamed, reportedly broke a window to try to start a fire inside the synagogue.
Emergency responders said that the building suffered minor damage. No one was injured in the attempted attack.
Notably, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom was vandalized last year with antisemitic graffiti.
Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom's rabbi speaks out after attack
After the attack, the temple’s rabbi, Lisa Grushcow, told her congregation that more needed to be done to fight “the scourge of antisemitism.”
"Responding requires being proactive, not reactive. Naming the ways in which external conflicts are being imported. Recognizing that while criticism of Israel can be legitimate, when the Jewish State and those who love it are libeled, violence against Jews is the result," she wrote in an email to the congregation.
"Politicians need courage. Law enforcement needs support. Neighborhoods need good neighbors."
Notably, the attempted arson comes after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney introduced a new federal advisory council to combat antisemitism.
In his speech introducing the measure, he said that Canada was facing a "crisis of antisemitism" and that it “surged to levels not seen in the post-war period."
Of 1,342 religion-based hate crimes reported in 2024, roughly 70% targeted the Jewish community, which makes up about 1% of Canada’s population, government data shows.