Five Jewish sites vandalised in central Paris

Vandals on Friday night defaced five Jewish sites, including France’s Holocaust Memorial, in the Marais district in central Paris with green paint.

Citing police sources, German channel RTL listed the Belleville Synagogue, the Tournelles Synagogue, the Israeli “Chez Marianne” restaurant and the Agoudas Hakehilos synagogue as the remaining four targets.

“I am deeply disgusted by these heinous acts targeting the Jewish community,” French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau tweeted in the wake of the vandalism.

Surveillance footage from the Holocaust Memorial reviewed by law enforcement showed a man dressed in black spray-painting the building at 4:35 a.m., according to RTL.

No arrests were made, according to AFP, though the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said that a religious motive for the incidents is being investigated.

Israel’s president Issac Herzog tweeted: “I am appalled by the attack on Jewish institutions in Paris over Shabbat – including the synagogue in the Marais neighbourhood which was built by my great-grandfather, Rabbi Joel Herzog.

I spoke this evening with leaders of @Le_CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions) and the Jewish community in France to express my solidarity and support for the community.

I call on the French authorities to act swiftly, and firmly to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to defend the Jewish community from hatred and attacks of any kind.

Last week, the French interior minister urged law enforcement personnel to take extra security measures to protect Jewish-affiliated sites against antisemitic attacks.

On Friday, Retailleau ordered French security forces in a separate message seen by AFP to increase their surveillance efforts ahead of the Shavuot holiday.

“Antisemitic acts account for more than 60% of anti-religious acts, and the Jewish community is particularly vulnerable.”

Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Centre, commented: “Yad Vashem condemns in the strongest possible terms the desecration of the Shoah Memorial and synagogues in Paris. We demand from the French authorities to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. France has to redouble its efforts to fight rampant antisemitism.”

The co-CEO of The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim, told J-Wire: “The vandalism of two synagogues and other Jewish sites in Paris on Shabbat is an outrage, and a sign of the moral rot that has corroded European societies, especially since October 7 2023.

We demand that the French authorities stop reacting to these appalling acts with mere words and hand-wringing, and that they take concerted action to bring the perpetrators swiftly to account.

More broadly, we call on the French government to have a long hard look at itself, and be honest enough to admit that its own persistently harsh rhetoric about Israel, a fellow democracy, has contributed in so small way to the shameful culture that has bred the violence now playing out on the streets of its capital. We express our solidarity with our Jewish brothers and sisters in France, and with our friends and partners in CRIF. We stand ready to offer them whatever support we can. ”

Ever since the Hamas-led massacre in Israel’s western Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, Jewish communities across Europe experienced heightened tensions, with an uptick of vandalism targeting Jewish-linked sites.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) found in July 2024 that 76% of European Jews have avoided wearing anything betraying a Jewish identity outsides their homes or synagogues, registering an increase of 30% since when the first FRA survey was conducted in 2013.

A survey of 4,400 European adults published in May this year found that more than a quarter said they had seen antisemitism disguised as pro-Palestinian activism.

However, 82% of respondents said they do not prioritise national plans to fight antisemitism, Rabbi Menachem Margolin said in presenting the survey in Madrid during the annual conference of the European Jewish Association that he leads.

JNS/J-Wire