1. Jewish Cafe Targeted On Passover Eve In Violent Incident

Winnipeg Canada:

A River Heights restaurant was the scene of a brutal robbery that sent an employee to hospital, and police report antsemitic graffiti was spray-painted inside the Jewish-owned business by the suspects. Sources have confirmed that the perpetrators broke into the Cafe at 10.45 PM Thursday night and discovered a female family member on site who was assaulted.

 

The attack happened only a few hours after the Cafe posted an online photo of their support for the Jewish National Fund Negev Dinner Gala set for May. JNF Exec. Director Ariel Karabelnikoff was alerted to the incident by TheJ .ca and upon attending the scene pronounced it was “sickening – this one seems much worse than the previous incidents.”

 

TheJ .ca has also learned that a gay-run Jewish non-profit group had established their office in the next unit and held a fundraiser at the facility on Wednesday night. “Be’TLV is comprised of LGBTQ* Jews of various backgrounds and their allies” and aims to “empower and showcase LGBTQ individuals” through programming at the Cafe.

2. HORROR IN MOSCOW: Neo-Nazi Arson at Yeshiva Toras Chaim on Erev Yom Tov [PHOTOS]

It was a horrific scene in Moscow on Erev Pesach, as talmidim at Yeshiva Toras Chaim awoke to find devastation from an apparent arson fire.

 

The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Moshe Lebel, told the media there were 60 students, rabbis and guests in the building at the time of the arson. Bechasdei Hashem, no one was injured.

The blaze destroyed the storage room with food for Yom Tov, and all the Kosher meat was burnt.

According to a Facebook post by Rabbi Betzalel Mandel, neo-Nazis committed the attack on the yeshiva, which he called a “pogrom”. On one of the doors, the attackers drew a swastika and the number 88, a reference to the infamous Nazi salute “Heil Hitler.”

 

Olga Yessaulova, press secretary of the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, called it outrageous that the arson was committed on the eve of one of the most significant Jewish holidays.

“In the next two days we will not be able to investigate, because Pesach begins at this moment. The situation is completely entrusted to law enforcement agencies, which we hope will be able to find intruders,” said Esaulova.

One more: Times of Israel reports on Moscow

While Russia has a long history of anti-Semitism, it has noticeably declined under Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Putin has made considerable efforts to reach out to Russian Jewish communities, both within his state’s borders and in Israel. His country’s chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, is a close confidante.

 

He has encouraged the restoration of dozens of synagogues destroyed under communism and taken a hard-line on anti-Semitism.

H/T SB.