Subject: RE: Jed's new CD, Toronto, Friends
From:
GUEST,Angry and sad in Toronto
Date: 15 Jul 02 - 09:17 AM
Jed, I'm glad you had an enjoyable stay here. At the same time that you were enjoying the hispitatlity of the folk community, a religious man was murdered just because he was visibly Jewish.
From today's Toronto Star
By Nicholas Keung and Melissa Leong STAFF REPORTERS
Police are searching for two people after an Orthodox Jewish father of six was stabbed to death early yesterday morning in an unprovoked attack by a man believed to be a skinhead, witnesses say.
The slaying provoked instant fears in Toronto's Jewish community.
A manhunt is under way for 20-year-old Christopher Steven McBride and Mercedes (Sylvia) Asante, 19, who police believe were involved in the possible hate crime. A third man, who was not immediately identified, has been detained and is under investigation.
David Rosenzweig, who was to celebrate his 49th birthday yesterday, was stabbed in the back on the sidewalk near the Israeli-owned King David Pizza on Bathurst St., just south of Lawrence Ave. W., at 1:10 a.m. He was whisked to Sunnybrook hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses heard one of the attackers yelling, "He's a rabbi," before he pulled out a 30-centimetre knife and thrust it into Rosenzweig's lower back. The bearded victim was wearing a traditional Jewish kippa and a suit.
"It's a very heinous crime, a very cowardly crime," Chief Julian Fantino told a news conference at Toronto police headquarters yesterday. "We know that the victim was a middle-aged Hasidic Jew and the two suspects had the appearances of skinheads. We are looking at the possibility of this being a hate-motivated crime."
Two men and a woman, in their late teens or early 20s, entered the pizzeria and engaged in an argument with people inside, witnesses said.
"The two guys were harassing the customers. They were obviously there trying to create troubles. They were looking for troubles. I looked at their eyes and their face, they looked like they were on drugs or something," said an employee who gave his name only as Eddie.
He said the trio then left the pizzeria, heading south on Bathurst. One of the men ran over to Rosenzweig, who was standing in front of Dell Park Variety down the street, waiting for a tow truck to remove his son Ezra's stalled vehicle, which had been involved in a fender-bender.
"I don't think the victim knew those guys. He just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. It could've been anybody," said Eddie, 18.
At Rosenzweig's Almore Ave. home, friends and relatives gathered to mourn the death of a man they called "as kind as a saint."
Avrum Rosensweig, brother of the victim's wife Chavi, said Rosenzweig, a chartered accountant, was a very "kind, soft-spoken man" who devoted his life to his family.
"He always went out of his way to help other people. He was born to give," he said, adding that Chavi and the couple's five boys and a girl, ages 8 to 24, were not coping well with the tragic loss. Rosenzweig also had a grandson.
From 10 p.m. until the time his son called him for help, Rosenzweig was helping a rabbi collect money for charity, his family said yesterday.
"Today's supposed to be his Hebrew birthday," said Rabbi Ben Hecht, Rosenzweig's brother-in-law. "He was only there helping his son with his car. It's devastating, and we couldn't believe such an awful thing would happen to him."
Family friend Mordy Kaplan said one of the victim's sons is headed home from a tour in Italy, and so is the man's mother, who lives in Miami.
Kaplan, who belongs to the same Emek Tefilah Synagogue, said Rosenzweig was "very patient with people and had a lot of respect for others, just like a saint."
Nathan Elzas agreed.
"He never said any bad words about others. He never lost his temper and was well liked in the community, always cared about others' feelings. He spent a lot of time volunteering at different charitable organizations," noted Elzas, who has known the family for 30 years and had talked to Rosenzweig on the phone about midnight, just before the stabbing.
He said Rosenzweig was born in Canada to parents who are Holocaust survivors.
Elzas didn't witness the attack but said Rosenzweig was identifiably an Orthodox Jewish man, wearing a "white shirt, black suit, kippa and thick beard."
"It makes a lot of eerie feelings among people in the community about what happened. Everyone will be looking over their shoulders and be alert about their surroundings," he said, adding that the family has yet to claim the body from the morgue in preparation for a funeral.
The stabbing stunned Toronto's 200,000-strong Jewish community.
Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada, is a friend of Rosenzweig's brother and said he was a "gentle soul."
"He was a very low-key, highly respected individual," Dimant said. "It's horrific for the family, for the community and for the Jewish people on the whole."
Dimant was quick to declare the murder a hate crime. "He was an ordinary, peace-loving, modest individual who was killed for one reason only — because he was Jewish. It could have been anyone in our community. We've seen it in Israel and now in Canada. It's open season on the Jews."
Pearl Gladman, with B'nai Brith Canada, said there have been recent incidents in which Jews have been harassed in the Bathurst and Lawrence area, a well-known Jewish neighbourhood. Her organization has been warning police about a rising tide of hate since Sept. 11.
Len Rudner, of the Ontario region of the Canadian Jewish Congress, said Toronto's close-knit community is stunned.
"There's a growing sense of shock because this is not happening halfway across the world. This is happening on our streets."
The killing made headlines in Israel, said Zehavit Ben Hillel, of the Israeli Consulate General in Toronto. She was awakened by Israeli media at 4 a.m. yesterday.
Police blocked off Bathurst St. between Lawrence and Glengrove Ave. W. until late morning, as a team of experts from Israel's Zaka rescue and recovery service, who happened to be visiting Toronto, arrived to collect Rosenzweig's flesh and blood for a proper Jewish funeral.
"The blood and flesh of a person is all sacred. They have to be buried with the person. We have been doing this kind of cleanup for people killed in terrorist attacks for their proper burials," said Yisroel Stefansky.
Zaka's Rabbi Bentzion Oiring said: "We are here to relax and stay away from the crazy things in Israel. We didn't expect to have to be doing this in Toronto, too."
Rosenzweig's funeral has been scheduled for this afternoon.
Fantino said homicide officers would pursue McBride with a first-degree murder warrant. It's not known if the third person in custody will be charged or kept as a witness.
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