Toronto police have requested the public's aid in locating a suspect who allegedly assaulted a woman as she picked her child up from a Jewish daycare earlier this week.
"On Wednesday, November 13, 2024, at approximately 4:30 p.m., police responded to a call for an Assault at the Chabad of Midtown daycare located in the Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West area," a police statement read.
Police added that the victim was picking up her child from the daycare when the male suspect approached the victim and assaulted her; he then left the area on foot.
The woman suffered minor injuries, police added. The victim and suspect are not known to each other.
The suspect is described as 30 to 35-years-old, approximately 175 lbs., with a medium build. He was last seen wearing a black hoodless puffer jacket, burgundy-coloured pants with a white drawstring, and was carrying a blue plastic bag.
This is not the first time a Jewish school in Toronto has been targeted recently: In October, a Jewish school in Toronto was hit with gunfire in the early morning, during Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. In May, two gunmen opened fire on it; no one was injured.
Toronto has seen an increase in anti-Israel riots and acts of antisemitism in the year that has passed since Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
In July, two synagogues in Toronto were attacked on the same day by vandals who threw rocks through the synagogues' windows.
The first incident occurred at the Pride of Israel Synagogue, where congregants were shocked to discover several windows shattered, holes in their stained glass and stones scattered onto the bimah.
In the second incident, a vandal threw a rock through the window of the Kehillat Shaarei Torah Synagogue. This synagogue had been targeted in similar attacks twice before that.
In January, a Jewish-owned grocery store in Toronto was spray-painted with the words “Free Palestine” and later set on fire.
Days later, Toronto police arrested four people on a highway overpass, located near a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, that has become the site of recurring pro-Palestinian Arab protests.
In February, an anti-Israel protest at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto turned into a display of antisemitism. At least one protester was documented scaling the hospital with a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag.