“I feel vulnerable—they invaded under my skin,” says Nate Leipciger, 97, a survivor of Auschwitz-Birkenau and Dachau.
The recent removal of mezuzahs from a Toronto residential building housing Holocaust survivors has deepened fears about rising antisemitism, striking at what residents say is the most intimate place of all: their homes.
For the second time in a month, mezuzahs were ripped from apartment doors in a residential building in Toronto where several Holocaust survivors live, March of the Living said in a press release on Saturday. Earlier in December, Canadian media reported the removal and theft of approximately 100 mezuzahs from another residential building in the city.
The latest incident occurred during the Christmas holidays, when mezuzahs were removed from several housing units in a building located about two kilometers from a synagogue. Toronto police have opened an investigation and are treating the incident as a hate crime. No suspects or official motive have yet been identified.