A Jewish center in the Canadian city of Montreal was targeted in a bomb
attack, and a synagogue in San Francisco, California was defaced with
swastikas during the first days of the Passover festival.

The bomb detonated at Montreal's Ben Weider Jewish Community Center
failed to cause any injuries or deaths, though workers were present at
the time of the explosion. Damage was caused to the building.

Montreal police downplayed the incident, emphasizing that the bomb was
"homemade" and saying they have not yet determined whether it was a hate crime.

The bombing comes just two days before the third anniversary of the
firebomb attack on a Montreal United Talmud Torah elementary school.
That attack burned the school's library.

Another Jewish school was firebombed last year. B'nai Brith Canada
reports a 70 percent rise in anti-Jewish attacks in Quebec and a 12.8
percent rise in all of Canada.

Swastikas in San Francisco
San Francisco's Emanu-El synagogue, the largest in the city, was
defaced with swastikas over the Passover festival. Congregants
discovered the vandalism Monday morning.

San Francisco's mayor condemned the Nazi graffiti. "San Francisco is
known as a city that embraces people of all faiths," Mayor Gavin Newsom
told CBS news. "We strongly condemn this act of hatred and intolerance. "

In the heavily-Jewish populated Bergen County region of New Jersey,
swastikas and anti-Jewish graffiti were found engraved into the
playground of a Wallington park on Passover eve.

Bergen County Police spokesman Kevin Hartnett said, "We run into
graffiti in the parks all the time, but we don't see these types of
possible bias crimes often."

Anti-Jewish Arabic Graffiti on Chicago Synagogue

Chicago police are investigating the Passover eve spraying of graffiti
on the walls of a Chicago synagogue. Anti-Israel messages, including
"Death to Israel," were painted in English and in Arabic. "This is what
American Jews have to look forward to. You can hear the deafening
silence," said Jack Berger, a Chicago Jewish community leader.

Ahmed Rahab, director of the Chicago branch of the Council on
American-Islamic relations, condemned the act as "reprehensible. "

A rough drawing of a building labeled "Jewish library" with
missiles headed toward it was found in a Princeton University common
room. Also in the path of the missiles were stick figures labeled
"little Jews." A swastika graced the top of the sketch.

Jewish students presume the drawing is a reference to a Jewish
fundraising drive for an elementary school in northern Israel damaged
during the Second Lebanon War last summer.