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A man repeatedly tried to pull an Orthodox Jew’s streimel from his head outside a Montreal synagogue on Friday night, days after a self-declared Houthi struck a Jewish man in Toronto.
A video posted online shows the man stepping out of a black car and closing in on his target from behind, grabbing at the fur hat until nearby Hasidic men intervened and chased him off.
Local Jewish community reports said the suspect also stole two fur hats from other Jewish men before fleeing the scene.
🇨🇦 Montreal, Canada, July 3, 2026: Four Orthodox Jewish men were attacked on Shabbat after a man jumped out of a car and violently tore the religious hats from their heads. Three custom-made hats worth $5,000 to $10,000 were stolen.
Source: @InTownMTL pic.twitter.com/isDsx7jmqB
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) July 6, 2026
The Toronto assault happened days earlier, on June 30, in broad daylight. Joseph Bitton, a Jewish real estate agent in the Toronto area, said on Facebook that he was at a client’s commercial property when a man claiming to be a Houthi from Yemen confronted him.
The man began shouting that he was “going to kill me because Israel is killing babies and committing genocide,” Bitton said.
“He then threw a parking pylon at me as well as a brick, rocks, metal bars and struck me with a thick tree branch,” Bitton said.
Bitton, who was wearing a kippah, said he suffered only minor scratches and abrasions. “The greater damage was the emotional trauma,” he said.
“This is NOT the Canada I grew up in and have lived in over the past 64 years,” he said.
Toronto Police arrested 58-year-old Abdulkadir Al-Jelani and charged him with three counts of assault with a weapon and one count of uttering death threats. Police classified the case as a hate crime.
🇨🇦 Toronto, July 1, 2026: A man claiming to be a “Houthi,” Abdulkadir Al-Jelani, attacked a Jewish realtor, Joseph Bitton with a metal street sign and rocks while threatening to kill him.
Toronto Police arrested the suspect and are investigating the assault as a hate-motivated. pic.twitter.com/uEI1Q6dVtP
— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) July 6, 2026
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) said the assault “demonstrates how the anti-Zionist hate movement is being weaponized to justify intimidation and violent attacks against Canadians.”
“The problem needs to be named clearly — anti-Zionism is fueling radicalization, extremism, and anti-Jewish violence,” CIJA added.
Take Action
CAM has launched Report It, a secure app to report antisemitic incidents anonymously and in real time. Don’t stay silent. Download it today on the Apple App Store or Google Play. See it. Report it. Stop it.
