WATERLOO, Ontario โ An anonymous family has donated $3,600 to install new mezuzahs at Wilfrid Laurier University after Jewish students discovered two mezuzahs torn from residence doorposts and smashed during Rosh Hashanah.
Rabbi Moshe Goldman, co-director of the Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Life in Waterloo and Jewish chaplain at Laurier, told theย Canadian Jewish News about the donation. The family has a student attending the university and asked to remain anonymous.
The response has already extended well beyond replacing the two damaged mezuzahs.
Goldman said 43 students who previously did not have mezuzahs outside their residence rooms have requested them since the vandalism. Each costs approximately $88, meaning demand has already exceeded the original $3,600 donation.
“Thereโs a backlog. Thank God, I have some good help. Weโll get to them over the next few days,” Goldman told the Canadian Jewish News.
The initiative marks a significant community response to an incident that disturbed Jewish students during one of the most important periods of the Jewish calendar.
Students returning from Rosh Hashanah celebrations on the evening of September 13 discovered two damaged mezuzahs in a hallway at Bricker Residence on Laurier’s Waterloo campus. The religious objects had been removed from Jewish students’ doorframes and broken.
A mezuzah is a case containing a handwritten parchment inscribed with passages from the Torah. Jewish tradition calls for mezuzahs to be affixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes, making them both religious objects and visible expressions of Jewish identity.
The university’s Special Constable Service is investigating the vandalism. No suspect or arrest has been publicly announced.
The university has not publicly determined a motive for the vandalism. Jewish organizations, including Hillel Ontario and StandWithUs Canada, have characterized the targeting of the mezuzahs as antisemitic hate and intimidation.
From Vandalism To More Mezuzahs
The campus response began almost immediately.
On September 14, approximately 30 members of Laurier’s Jewish community gathered for what organizers called a “mezuzah party” to reinstall the damaged mezuzahs.
Members of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi joined Goldman and Meir Evans, director of Hillel Waterloo & Laurier, for the gathering.
Students sang “Am Yisrael Chai,” ate honey cake and drank grape juice as the mezuzahs were restored.
Brayden Klausz, president of Laurier’s Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter, described how the atmosphere changed as students gathered.
“At the beginning it was a little bit sad,” Klausz told the Canadian Jewish News. “As the event slowly went on, we were there for one another. The sense of unity and all of us Jews coming together to support one another, that uplifts everyone.”
The subsequent requests from 43 additional students mean the response is no longer limited to restoring what was destroyed.
Instead, the number of mezuzahs displayed in Laurier residences is set to increase substantially.
Goldman told CBC that he viewed the vandalism as an unwelcome interruption to the work of building Jewish life on campus.
“It’s just an annoying distraction from the positive work we’re trying to do,” he said.
Investigation Continues
Laurier’s Special Constable Service remains responsible for the campus investigation.
The university’s Special Constable Service handles non-emergency crime reports on campus and can refer matters to Waterloo Regional Police where appropriate.
No evidence released publicly has identified the person or people responsible for damaging the mezuzahs.
That distinction remains important. While Jewish organizations have described the incident as antisemitic because Jewish religious objects were specifically targeted, the university has not publicly announced that investigators have established an antisemitic motive.
The investigation therefore remains open as the Jewish community proceeds with its own response.
For the anonymous family behind the $3,600 donation, that response will put new mezuzahs on dozens of student doorposts.
What began with two mezuzahs being torn down has prompted more than 40 Jewish students to ask for one of their own.
TheJ.ca receives no government money. Independent journalism depends on readers who believe these stories must be told. Consider supporting our efforts.
Stand Proud. Stand Strong. Stand Zionist.
