Charges laid in suspected hate crime at Toronto Hebrew school

A man and two teenagers are facing charges after allegedly making threats to a Toronto Hebrew school on Thursday – an incident that is being investigated as a hate crime.

In a news release issued on Friday, police announced that they had laid charges in the incident that occurred at Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto shortly after 12:30 p.m.

Police said three people attended the school and were shortly asked to leave by security. As they were leaving, they passed a group of Jewish students, and one of the suspects allegedly made threatening remarks.

Officers arrived and later located and apprehended the three suspects.

On Friday, police identified the suspects as 20-year-old Enes Boydak, a 17-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy. The names of the teenagers are not being released under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

All three have been charged with uttering threats/property damage, uttering threats/death or bodily harm, intimidation by threats of violence, and mischief interfere with enjoyment of property.

The suspects were scheduled to appear in a Toronto bail court on Friday morning.

The arrests come amid heightened police presence around Jewish and Palestinian communities as well as other places of worship in the Greater Toronto Area in response to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas that has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians.

The school reopened on Friday with officers on patrol around the property.

"Every time you see police around, it gives a little bit of a sense of comfort. They are there to be accessible. They want to be seen, and we know they're here to help," Jonathan Levy, head of school at the Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, told CP24 as kids arrived for school Friday.

"So yes, it's a challenging time. But it's wonderful to know that this is being taken so seriously."

Toronto police have also set up command posts on Bathurst Street, one at Lawrence Avenue and the other at Glencairn.

- with files from Joshua Freeman