Toronto police are investigating after anti-Semitic graffiti was recently spray painted on a garage and a coffee shop in Toronto’s west end.

The acts of vandalism happened over the Passover holiday, which began the evening of Wednesday, April 8, and ended Thursday, April 16.

In once incident, the garage of a home on Crawford Street, near College Street and Ossington Avenue, was defaced with a tag that insinuated “the Jews” were to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Thursday April 9, a nearby Aroma Espresso Bar, which is part of a chain of cafés founded in Israel in 1994, also recently tagged with the message “Zionists are not welcome.” Zionism is Jewish national movement to recognize and re-establish an independent Jewish state in Israel.

This same Aroma location near College and Bathurst streets was vandalized with a similar hateful message just a week earlier.

B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish service organization that had advocated for Canadian Jewry and championed the cause of human rights since 1875, reported the three incidents to Toronto police.

Officers from 14 Division with the support of the Hate Crime Unit are now investigating, said Toronto Police spokesperson Connie Osborne in an April 22 email to toronto.com.

“Inquiries remain ongoing and no arrests have been made at this stage,” she said, adding any hate crime charges will be determined in consultation with the Crown Attorney at a later date.

B’nai Brith Canada condemned the anti-Semitic graffiti in an April 13 statement.

“It is disappointing that while most people are working together in the face of crisis, at least one person has instead chosen to spread hatred,” said Michael Mostyn, the organization’s CEO.

“Spreading antisemitic messages during a Jewish holiday is a particularly despicable act.”

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