Toronto (April 9, 2020) - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) has received reports that a downtown Toronto Aroma cafe has been covered with antisemitic graffiti for the second time in two weeks.

According to reports, the Aroma location at 540 College Street was defaced today with graffiti that reads “Zionists are not welcome,” similar to the message written on the storefront on March 29 that has already been painted over.

FSWC is following up with Toronto Police’s 14 Division to demand an active and thorough investigation, including a neighbourhood canvas for surveillance footage that may have captured the perpetrators.

A member of the public who says they are a resident of the building taped a message of protest beside the graffiti, decrying the “uneducated, disgusting and malicious” nature of the vandalism and comparing the incident to the storefront attacks suffered by Jewish business owners in Germany in the years leading up to the Holocaust.

Aroma cafes have continued to be a target of the antisemitic BDS movement since the Israeli chain was first established in Canada in 2007.