Barbi Green

Nöam, a well-known Montréal kosher restaurant on Décarie Boulevard, was burned to the ground overnight. Nearby surveillance footage shows a man pouring accelerant and deliberately setting the restaurant on fire, according to reports from The Suburban. The owners are Shomer Shabbat and may not even be able to review the footage or fully absorb the destruction of their business until Shabbat ends. The Jewish community of Montréal will stand together, support them and rebuild. In one way or another, Nöam will emerge from this stronger and more glorious than ever. Because this is what we do. As for the motive, we already know the ritual that will follow. We will be instructed to remain calm, suspend judgment and wait patiently before calling a spade a spade. But let us remember the context in which this occurred. For nearly three years, Montréal’s Jewish schools, synagogues, community institutions and businesses have been threatened, vandalized, shot at and set on fire. Because “Free Palestine.” Because “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” Because Jew hatred has been excused, normalized and allowed to spread without meaningful consequence. Each incident may require its own investigation. But the broader pattern does not cease to exist merely because every individual perpetrator has not left behind a written manifesto explaining his intentions. There comes a point at which the demand for infinite proof stops functioning as legitimate caution and starts functioning as social permission to remain blind. Whatever this investigation ultimately establishes, the owners of Nöam will not face this alone. The Jewish community of Montréal will rebuild, as we always do. But our resilience should never be mistaken for an obligation to remain silent about the conditions that made an attack like this ultimately foreseeable. We will rebuild. But we will not remain silent.