The Noam kosher restaurant in Montreal was destroyed by fire in the early hours of Saturday, August 1, in a suspected arson, according to Israeli media reports. Montreal police opened an investigation on suspicion of a hate crime, with no arrests reported as of Saturday evening. A Jewish member of parliament has called for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime amid a series of attacks on Jewish institutions in recent months.
The Noam kosher restaurant, located near Décarie Boulevard and Plamondon Avenue in Montreal, was destroyed by a fire that broke out shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, August 1, according to local reports. Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours, and the damage was extensive. A person was seen fleeing the scene, and Montreal police are investigating the incident as a suspected arson, with a hate crime angle.
Israeli media reported that the police opened an investigation on suspicion of a hate crime on Saturday evening. A Jewish member of the Canadian parliament has called for the incident to be classified as a hate crime, citing a series of attacks on Jewish institutions in recent months. No arrests have been made as of Saturday evening.
The incident comes amid heightened security concerns for the Montreal Jewish community, which experienced a severe shooting attack in June 2026 in the Côte-des-Neiges district, where a gunman ambushed police near a Chabad center, killing an officer and a civilian. That incident was initially feared to be an antisemitic attack, though police later assessed the gunman's primary target was law enforcement.
The investigation into the fire at Noam is ongoing.
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