Montreal's Jewish community is both fearful and enraged, after an attack on a Jewish elementary school. The prime minister has condemned the attack as racist, revolting and un-Canadian.

The early morning fire Monday in the library of the United Talmud Torahs elementary school destroyed books and computers. Police say someone broke the windows of the library and firebombed the school.

The school was closed for Passover and no one was injured.

Martin called the fire a cowardly and racist act.

"This is not my Canada. This is not our Canada," he told reporters in Burlington, Ont.

"They are attacking all of us. And it is only if we are unequivocal in that statement that we join together that we are preserving our values."

Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who once attended a branch of the school, also expressed outrage. He says anti-Semitism has once again reared its ugly head and the federal government will act to fight it.

"As students, we experienced anti-Semitism, but it was an anti-Semitism of ignorance, of stereotype, of prejudice.

What we have witnessed here today, it's anti-Semitism of hatred, racism and violence.''

"We will not be intimidated and we will act and we will bring the full force of the law to bear against those who commit these cowardly hate crimes," Cotler told reporters.

Anti-Semitic notes were also taped to the school.

The notes denounced recent attacks against Palestinians, including the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Islamic Hamas movement, and threatened further attacks.

"Our goal was only to sound the alarm without causing deaths... but this is just a beginning. If your crimes continue in the Middle East, our attacks will continue,'' the letter reads.

Montreal police deputy director Yves Supprenant said the notes were signed by an unknown organization. He didn't provide details except to say "what was written on the notes really told us it was a hate crime."

He calls it the most deplorable act he's seen in 24 years on the force and said police will investigate the attack as a hate crime.

Const. Robert Mansueto of the Montreal police told Canada AM this morning that security has been stepped up during the Passover period.

"We're taking the threats that were left here on the notes very seriously. We can't leave anything to chance," Mansueto said.

Sidney Benudiz, head of the United Talmud Torahs school, said the attack reminded him of book burnings in the Nazi era and said security is being increased.

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay also promised an increased police presence around all Jewish places of worship during the Passover holiday period.

"These acts will not be tolerated in our city and must be denounced as emphatically as possible,'' he said.

Monday's attack follows a number of anti-Semitic incidents in Toronto that included the vandalizing of two Jewish schools and desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

Three teenagers have been charged.

In a separate incident, a 46-year-old man was arrested after a Star of David, an equal sign and a swastika were sprayed on construction boarding in west-end Toronto.

Last week, the city held a massive rally in which politicians and community and Jewish leaders vowed to stamp out racism.