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Police commended for quick arrest in Jewish centre vandalism

'It is so important that there is no tolerance whatsoever for threatening and hateful behaviour toward our community,' Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center president and CEO says
2019 10 30 Friends of Simon Weisenthal

NEWS RELEASE
FRIENDS OF SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE (FSWC)
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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) applauds York Regional Police for its determined investigation into incidences of vandalism at the home of a local rabbi. Police have arrested 35-year-old Saeed Ahmad of Georgina and charged him with the crime of Mischief in Relation to Religious Property.

Rabbi Yossi Vorovitch of the Chabad Jewish Centre of Georgina contacted FSWC last weekend after an individual tried to enter the rabbi’s home and confessed to repeated trespassing of the property, as well as recent vandalism of the rabbi’s sukkah. According to Rabbi Vorovitch, the same individual had posted a photo of Hitler, as well as a man wielding a sword on the Jewish centre’s Google page.

FSWC immediately reached out to York Region detectives and pressed for an aggressive investigation.

“We are very pleased that York Region Police have investigated these alarming incidences so effectively and have been successful in making an arrest,” said Avi Benlolo, FSWC president and CEO. “In light of world events in which Jewish people have been the target of violence, it is so important that there is no tolerance whatsoever for threatening and hateful behaviour toward our community.”