Canada – A Montreal resident is in a medically induced coma in a local hospital after being subjected to a vicious unprovoked beating Thursday night outside an Outremont Bank.
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The victim, who is approximately 30 years old, was exiting the Bank of Montreal at 1554 Avenue Van Horne at about 7:45 PM when he was attacked by a man who, according to witnesses, had been sitting on a bench outside the bank.
The victim was identified as Shlomo Zalmen Rosenberg, a member of Outremont’s Chasidic community.
“The attacker was sitting on a bench outside the bank,” Meilich Brach of Chaverim told VIN News. “He choked him and he broke two bones, one in his head and one in his shoulder.”
The assailant also poured some kind of liquid on Rosenberg during the attack.
“It smelled like gas, but we don’t have the bottle yet so we don’t know what it was.”
A mother with children who witnessed the attack called Hatzolah, while several other witnesses attempted to chase down the assailant.
“They called 911 and they were told to stop following in case he was armed,” said Brach. “We tried with police to see where he could have run but so far we have no leads.”
Hatzolah treated Rosenberg when they arrived on scene and transported him to Montreal General Hospital where he remains in critical stable condition.
Nothing was taken from Rosenberg during the attack which witnesses said lasted a minimum of 90 seconds.
“It doesn’t look like he even tried to take anything,” said Brach. “He just attacked him. We didn’t see any motive. Some of the witnesses said he looked like an Arab but I can’t tell you if he was targeted because he was a Jew.”
Its unclear at this time if this was a bias crime.
Its hard to be a Jew, whether in Israel or outside of Israel.
May he have a refuah sh’laima.
It’s time for jews to wake up and to combat this anti-semitism, all over the world if that means increasing civilian patrols in shuls ,schools or heavy jewish populated areas then we must do so and send a message we are not scared and we will not go down without a fight!! Remember only we can really protect ourselves
Please be mispallel for Shlomo Zalman ben Sheva
it was a Muslim, just like the US and Israeli government jumped to false conclusions by saying Jews burned that Arab kid, I can do so as well.
Anti-Jewish attacks are up in every country, on every continent. Jews have got to be prepared to defend themselves, and assist other Yidden in danger. The time is NOW to stop all the ridiculous theological debates and divisiveness that is weakening us internally. Was he attacked because he was religious? a Zionist? a non-Zionist? a Canadien Jew? an Israeli? a Modern Orthodox? a Satmarer? a Lubavitcher???? Let us pray for the young victim in Montreal and his family. And the time to fight back is NOW.
Wishing him a refuah shlaima bimhaira.
Reply to golani:
Serious?? Only we can protect ourselves?? Do you believe in G-D??? Only G-D can protect us, yet it’s our good deeds that bring the best protection. Our good deeds will bring Moshiach…
Years ago, in Brooklyn, my brother was coming out of Shul, on Shabbas, with a few friends. All of a sudden, a motorist came along, opened his car window, and started cursing the Jews, who were on the sidewalk, and clearly not interfering with the motorist. However, the motorist made the mistake of starting with the wrong Jews. One of those with my brother was an Israeli paratrooper. He ran after the car, opened the car door, and beat the heck out of the anti-Semitic motorist. After the incident, there were some who stated “Well, technically on Shabbos, he shouldn’t have opened the car door, since he turned the light on by doing so. However, in this case, I believe that the retaliatory action taken by the paratrooper, against that momzer, was 100% justified! I hope that everyone agrees!
Anonymous 7: And that’s why Gd asks us through his Halacha to do mitzvot, one of which is to take precautions and protect ourselves from harm.
When insulting remarks are hurled at people, yes people do get beat up in this world. As your text indicates, this type of response isnt typical of jews which may be part of the problem. The papatrooper may deserve to get prosecuted. This is a case where if one needs to get charged with assault he should not regret his actions and it is worth the blotch of his criminal record if it didn’t get dismissed in the first place.