St. Laurent artist Helena Aloun charges that her vandalized art work of a Star of David a week ago Monday was perpetrated as an attack on a Jewish symbol.

The Star of David is a symbol of Judaism and part of the flag of Israel.

Aloun had an exhibition of three of her art works hanging at the St. Laurent Centre des loisirs, on Grenet. “It’s a place where I have been painting many years,” she told The Suburban last Thursday. “I do all kinds of things there, not just painting.

“As part of the exhibition, I put up works with Jewish motifs. One was a découpage [paper cut-outs] of a Klezmer fiddler. Another was the Star of David. And another was of a Jewish person praying at the Kotel (the Western Wall in Israel).

“Two days from now (Sept. 28), I was going to take them off anyway. But I was called last week and told that they have bad news — I had been waiting for good news, that something happened to one of my pictures. I went there right away. The Star of David was the nicest one there. I met the woman in charge.”

Aloun said the back of her Star of David painting was cut with a knife, and the picture was effectively destroyed.

“The Centre des loisirs is open from the early morning until about 10 p.m., and I know it happened sometime in the evening. It could have happened at 6 p.m., but nobody seems to know anything

“The police came over and I spoke to them. They said ‘if you know or hear something, call us.” Her paintings are no longer hanging at the Centre des loisirs.”

A week ago Monday was a “gloomy day for me. I’m sure this was a case of anti-Semitism. This painting was the only one that was damaged.

“At the beginning, I was afraid to put it up... but the place is a second home to me. I go to the Centre des loisirs a lot.”