Israel and Hamas at war | Shaken, the Jewish community of Montreal reflects

A young Montrealer is among the victims of the Hamas attack during an outdoor concert in southern Israel

The Hamas attack in Israel hit the Jewish community of Quebec right in the heart on Monday, with the announcement of the death of a young Montrealer, Alexandre Look, whose life was cut short during a music festival. In shock, the Jewish community of Montreal came together to heal its wounds.

Alexandre Look, 33, whose parents live in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, was visiting Israel, the Chabad of Westmount Educational Center announced Monday morning. The young man was participating in a techno music festival in the south of the country when he was the victim of the Hamas attack, just like 260 other festival-goers, his relatives described to several media.

“He called us on a video call around 11:15 a.m. our time, telling me: ‘Mom, we are in a terrorist attack’,” explained his mother, Raquel Ohnona, in an interview with RDI. The young man apparently went to take refuge in a shelter built to protect himself from missile fire with around thirty other people.

This is where he would have died. “We witnessed the assassination of our son live,” added his father, Alain Haim Look.

In videos authenticated by the CBC channel, survivors who were with Alexandre Look in the shelter explained that the young man had tried to block the entrance to the shelter, which did not have a door. This is how he was allegedly the victim of gunfire by fighters on foot infiltrated into the festival.

“I swear to you, he was our shield. If he hadn’t been there, we would all be dead,” says a woman in the video recording to Alexandre Look’s parents, according to CBC.

“Like a true warrior, he left like a hero wanting to protect the people he was with. Alex was a force of nature, endowed with unique charisma and unparalleled generosity,” his father wrote on Facebook on Monday.

Alexandre Look had been living in Mexico for several years and owned beauty clinics, according to several media. The young man had been on vacation for two months and was due to return soon, but had decided to extend his stay in Israel for Jewish holidays, his parents said.

Contacted on Monday, one of the spiritual leaders of the Center, Devorah Shanowi, said she was saddened by the departure of the young man when “he was only dancing and enjoying life”. “We cannot rationalize this kind of gesture, it is the bottom of humanity,” she said, regarding the murderers of Alexandre Look.

An evening in memory

Space was lacking at the Gelber Conference Center, in the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough, Monday evening. Around 2,000 people, young and old, were expected there and crowded into several rooms to gather and listen to the speakers, in person or on screens.

“The idea is to come together and try to move past this painful moment,” said Eta Yudin, vice-president of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CJA), the organization behind the organization of the evening. .

Jewish Canadians were particularly affected by the events of the weekend, she said, because of their many ties to Israel. “Either they have someone they know who is on vacation there, or a friend or family,” she lists, before being interrupted again by an acquaintance who came to say a few words to her. of comfort.

The evening took place under heavy security. Police officers from the Montreal City Police Department patrolled the adjacent streets while several others were stationed in front of the entrance to the building, where all visitors had to submit to a search and a metal detector.

Faces were long listening to the speeches condemning the Hamas attack and the demonstration in support of the Palestinian people which had been held the day before in the city center.

“You prove to everyone that a just solution to the Palestinian conflict is not what you seek, but rather the dream of seeing our ancestral lands, but without Jews. To you, I say: get the hell out,” declared Federation CJA president Steve Sebag at the time.

Then regarding the Hamas attack, the Minister of the Coalition Avenir Québec Benoit Charette added by affirming that “72 hours later, several people are still hesitant to say it: it is terrorism. […] This is nothing but terrorism.”

“In memory of the civilian victims of the Hamas terrorist group’s offensive in Israel, the flags of the National Assembly will be flown at half-mast on Tuesday, at dawn,” announced the first of the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault.

Three more Canadians missing

Global Affairs Canada reported Sunday that three other Canadians are currently missing.

A Manitoban born for 33 years in the kibbutz of Be’eri, not far from the border with the Gaza Strip, Vivian Silver, was reportedly the victim of a kidnapping. The 74-year-old woman was on the phone with a friend when Hamas terrorists allegedly arrived at her door, the friend told the media The Canadian Jewish News.

A young man from Vancouver, Ben Mizrachi, who took part in the same music festival as Montrealer Alexandre Look, is also believed to have been missing since the events. King David Jewish High School, which the young man attended until 2018, was the first to reveal his disappearance, calling on the community to pray on his behalf, the daily reported. Vancouver Sun.

Currently, 1,419 Canadians are registered with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service in the State of Israel and 492 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since registration for this service is voluntary, “it is not a complete picture of Canadians abroad,” specifies the Department.

With Alice Girard-Bossé, The Press