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New Spree of Anti-Semitic Attacks in France

Paris kosher restaurant firebombed, student assaulted in latest incidents

by
Yair Rosenberg
November 12, 2014
Paris, France. (Shutterstock)
Paris, France. (Shutterstock)

The Gaza war may have passed, and with it, the media’s attention to anti-Semitic outbreaks in Europe, but such attacks have continued unabated in recent weeks. And France, which had already been experiencing anti-Jewish convulsions for many months prior to the recent Israel-Hamas conflict, has been no exception.

This past week, Zekaï, a kosher sushi restaurant in Paris, was reportedly pelted with cobblestones and firebombed. The eatery is easily identified as a Jewish one thanks to its prominently displayed kosher certificate, and the fact that it closes on Shabbat and Jewish holidays, which patrons say leads locals to shout “dirty Jews” at diners, and flash the quenelle, the inverted Nazi salute that has become popular across Europe. Police are currently investigating the crime.

Just hours later, a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke was assaulted by a gang of youths outside his private high school in Paris’ third district, according to a local watchdog group. “In his complaint to the police, the Jewish teenager says he was beaten, received punches on the entire body and face, and wounded in the eye and under the right cheekbone,” the group reported.

Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.