Decades-old tensions in a Montreal borough between Hasidic Jews and their neighbors flared again after some from the latter group donned yellow badges reminiscent of those Jews were forced to wear during the Nazi era.
The eight protesters at an Outremont Borough Council meeting on Monday, led by Ginette Chartre, said the rectangular badges signified yellow Hasidic-run school buses for children that the residents complain regularly impede traffic flow on their streets.
But the symbolism of yellow badges pinned to clothing did not go unnoticed by outraged Jewish residents and groups.“The person who devised such a protest either has no knowledge of history whatsoever, or if they understood, they would surely have realized it was a horrendous way to express one’s opinion,” B’nai Brith Canada’s Steven Slimovitch said.
JTA