A popular Montreal kosher restaurant was destroyed in what police are investigating as a possible arson attack early Saturday morning, the latest in a worsening pattern of antisemitic attacks across the city and throughout Jewish communities in Canada. 

First responders were called to Nöam Restaurant in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood around 3:15 a.m. Saturday to find the building engulfed in flames. Despite the efforts of roughly 80 firefighters, the two-story building suffered extensive damage. No injuries were reported, and no arrests had been made as of Sunday afternoon. 

Montreal police did not respond to a request for comment from Jewish Insider. 

The Montreal Gazette reported that the blaze was set by a single individual who appeared to be a young man, perhaps in his early 20s, according to video footage of the incident.

“The Jewish community is in shock,” Tzipi Zeigerman, an Israeli who moved to the neighborhood two years ago, told JI on Sunday. Zeigerman said Nöam Restaurant is “one of the most beloved restaurants in the community” and locals have started raising funds to help it reopen.

Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL), co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, said he and his colleagues “are disgusted and outraged to see yet another heinous attack on a Jewish-owned business, this time an overnight, apparent arson attack that destroyed a beloved kosher restaurant in Montreal.”  

Elsewhere in Montreal on Saturday, supporters of the CF Montreal soccer team reportedly heckled an Israeli player for the opposing New England Revolution during a match between the teams, with some Montreal fans reportedly chanting, “Death to Israel” and “Free Palestine.”  

The attack comes amid heightened tensions in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood, a heavily Jewish area of Montreal where earlier this summer a Jewish civilian and a police officer were killed in a shooting; the suspect was also killed. In his manifesto, the alleged gunman reportedly railed against Jews and Zionists. 

Jewish leaders across Canada have warned that law enforcement and the government have failed to properly address a historic rise in antisemitism in the country. The Canadian government eliminated the standalone role of national antisemitism envoy in February.

In April, soon after a spate of synagogue shootings in Toronto that caused damage but no injuries, Irwin Cotler, Canada’s former justice minister, told JI that the incidents were “part of a pattern.”

“We are experiencing not only the highest level of antisemitic incidents since tracking began in the 1970s, but the real disturbing data has been the dramatic increase in hate crimes targeting Canadian Jews,” he said at the time. 

Cotler warned that if not addressed quickly, there’s “a ticking bomb here in Canada for what will be the Bondi massacre occurring in Canada,” a reference to the December 2025 mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, that killed 15 people.