Israel Hayom reported that the chief rabbi of the French city Orléans, Rabbi Aryeh Engelberg, was violently attacked and bitten on Saturday while walking with his 9-year-old son in Orléans.
By Rachel Avraham
Israel Hayom reported that the chief rabbi of the French city Orléans, Rabbi Aryeh Engelberg, was violently attacked and bitten on Saturday while walking with his 9-year-old son in Orléans. According to the report, Rabbi Engelberg was walking with his son on the street on the way home from synagogue when a man of Palestinian descent began to confront and curse him while filming him. After the rabbi asked him to leave, Israel Hayom reported that the Palestinian man attacked him, hit him on the head, bit him on the shoulder, and fled the scene. The rabbi sustained wounds in the head, the Jerusalem Post reported.
I24 News reported that the public prosecutor, Emmanuelle Bochenek-Puren, confirmed that he had launched an investigation into the “intentional violence committed due to the real or presumed religious affiliation of the victim.” France 24 reported that the suspect was arrested shortly after the assault and transferred to a psychiatric facility, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed. “I condemn with the greatest firmness the antisemitic attack of the Chief Rabbi of Orléans,” he posted on X. “He has all my support. The suspect was arrested and placed in a psychiatric facility. France cannot allow itself to become a stage for foreign tensions that fuel violence and antisemitism.”
“No, anti-Semitism is not ‘residual,’” said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), reacting on X. “Those who minimize, relativize, or justify hatred of Jews by a conflict 4,000 km away bear an immense responsibility.” Joëlle Gellert, president of the International League Against Racism and Antisemitism in Loiret (LICRA), told the Jerusalem Post: “We are appalled, outraged. Racism is not an opinion but a crime.”
President of CRIF for France’s central region, Eliane Klein, called the incident “appalling,” telling the Jerusalem Post: “There is currently a poisonous and clearly antisemitic atmosphere in France, but I didn’t think it would contaminate Orléans, which is a peaceful city. Until now, we had graffiti from time to time, at most. I hoped that this gangrene wouldn’t spread to Orléans. That’s why it’s all the more shocking.”
French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a post on X: “The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all. I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation … We will not give in to silence or inaction.” Orleans’ mayor, Serge Grouard, condemned the “heinous and intolerable act,” describing it as “a serious attack on the values of our Republic.” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote on X: “This is a vile and intolerable act. The resurgence of antisemitism in France and across Europe is not only alarming — it is a wake-up call to European governments, leaders, and civil society.”
There has been a violent rise in anti-Semitism across the globe since the October 7 terror attack. France has been no exception to this global trend. In 2024, the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France (SPCJ) recorded 1,570 antisemitic acts in the country, a 6.3% decrease from 2023, JNS reported. According to the report, that year, SPCJ documented an increase of 284% in antisemitic hate crimes over the previous year. About three-quarters of the 2023 incidents happened in that year’s final quarter.
France 24 reported that according to figures released by the French Interior Ministry, 1,570 antisemitic acts were recorded in 2024, representing 62% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the country. While that marks a 6% decrease from the previous year, the ministry noted that 65% of those acts targeted individuals directly – unlike anti-religious incidents against other faiths, which tend to involve property. Physical or personal assaults were up 3% from the previous year.
For the French Jewish community, this attack upon a rabbi coming home from synagogue services with his nine-year-old son was greatly shocking. France is home to Western Europe’s largest Jewish population, with an estimated 500,000 Jews – representing approximately 1% of the national population, France 24 reported. According to the report, it is the third-largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel and the United States. For this reason, the effect of anti-Semitic incidents in France vibrates across the Jewish world.
