Bais Chaya Mushka families celebrated Jewish pride on Sunday after gunfire was aimed at the Toronto school on Shabbat

The CJN Daily with Ellin Bessner

One day after the weekend targeting of Bais Chaya Mushka, a Jewish girl’s school in Toronto, by suspects who sprayed the front of building with bullets, the school’s students and their families have gone from initial shock and fear, to the determination not to be intimidated. They turned out in large numbers at a popular park to join the city’s Chabad Jewish community for a fun-filled day of balloons, clowns, archery and a parade marking the religious festival of Lag b’Omer. News of the pre-dawn shooting targeting the private Jewish school rocked the community when they learned about it after Shabbat ended late Saturday. It is the first time that Canada’s largest city has experienced a similar attack to what several Jewish schools in Montreal went through, shortly after Oct. 7. Some leaders are calling this incident a “heinous act of hate” and a “brazen and deliberate attempt to intimidate” the Jewish community. But as The CJN Daily’s Ellin Bessner found out when she attended the celebrations on Sunday, the school is finding a lot of support from the wider Jewish world, who will be present on Monday morning as the school reopens its doors. On today’s episode, you’ll hear from parent Mirel Freund daughter of Rabbi Mendel and Toby Bernstein who founded the all-girl’s school, as well as from the school principal Rabbi Yaakov Vidal.

What we talked about:

• Read why security equipment at Bais Chaya Mushka School helped deter the suspects from causing more damage on May 25, in The CJN.
• Join Mizrachi Canada and the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto in a rally of solidarity outside Bais Chaya Mushka School at 8:30 a.m. Monday May 27. Details here.
• Learn more about the Hebrew schools which Bais Chaya Mushka School founder Toby Bernstein now runs in Vaughan, Ont. in The CJN.

Credits:

The CJN Daily is written and hosted by Ellin Bessner (@ebessner on Twitter). Zachary Kauffman is the producer. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Dov Beck-Levine. We’re a member of The CJN Podcast Network. To subscribe to this podcast, please watch this video. Donate to The CJN and receive a charitable tax receipt by clicking here. Hear why The CJN is important to me.