According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, a French rabbi was attacked with a glass bottle and called a “dirty Jew” while walking down the street.
By Rachel Avraham
According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, a French rabbi was attacked with a glass bottle and called a “dirty Jew” while walking in Levallois-Perret in the Île-de-France region on Sunday. After the attacker was arrested, it was revealed that this was his fifth instance of targeting a rabbi since last September, the Jerusalem Post added.
Rabbi Yahir Elbaze of Beit Chabad Levallois gave video testimony to C News on Tuesday. “I was walking down the street and suddenly I saw a bottle flying, a glass bottle,” he said. “At first, I thought it must have come from the building next to me, but it turned out it was someone across the street who had thrown it. It landed about 30 to 50 c.m. in front of me. Then I heard ‘dirty Jew.’”
“There are delinquents, outlaws who behave badly. They are the ones who should be afraid. I don’t think we should be the ones living in fear – that would mean they’ve won,” he added. According to French news network C News, the police were able to identify the suspect thanks to CCTV footage, and he has been arrested.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Muriel Ouaknine-Melki – a criminal lawyer and president of the European Jewish Organization –stated that the case is currently being tried in a court in Nanterre, and that the prosecutor has submitted their sentencing recommendation: 10 months in prison, with six months suspended, and prohibition of contacting the victim for three years and from appearing near synagogues for five years.
Noëlle Lenoir, a French politician and former minister for European Affairs, told C News that she believes “France has become the most antisemitic country in Europe. Antisemitism has always existed in France, but now it’s evolved. Today, it also comes from the far Left. They won’t say they’re antisemitic, but they send signals and coded messages that resonate with antisemitic populations.”
France saw nearly 1,600 antisemitic acts in 2024, the Times of Israel reported. The figures only cover acts that have been the subject of a complaint, and therefore “this does not cover the entire phenomenon of antisemitism in France,” CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told AFP. According to the Times of Israel, antisemitic incidents surged in France following the October 7th massacre, when Gazan terrorists invaded southern Israel, massacring some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.
Other prominent antisemitic incidents in France include an arson attempt on a synagogue in La Grande-Motte, an arson at a synagogue in Rouen, the antisemitic gang rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in Courbevoie, the targeting of two synagogues alongside a Holocaust memorial and a Jewish restaurant with green paint, etc.
Almost 1 in 5 young people in France think it would be a good thing if Jews left the country, according to a recently commissioned survey by CRIF (the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France) and carried out by Ipsos, the Jerusalem Post reported. President of CRIF Jonathan Arfi told the Jerusalem Post: “Young people are more receptive to antisemitic, Islamist, and conspiracy theories, which are invading social networks.” France is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe and hosts the world’s third largest Jewish community after the United States and Israel.
