Jewish Teen Hospitalized After Anti-Semitic Attack in Paris
‘Take that, dirty Jew,’ one assailant reportedly said
July 10, 2015
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In the latest in an ongoing string of anti-Semitic attacks in France, a 13-year-old Jewish boy was beaten and robbed on Tuesday in Paris. According to the French National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, the kippa-clad teen was followed and cornered by six assailants after he left school. They proceeded to assault him, with one attacker reportedly saying, “take that, dirty Jew.”
The boy, who was not named in the report, was subsequently hospitalized, where he received stitches for his head wounds. The assailants, who also stole the boy’s cellular phone, have yet to be apprehended.
Unfortunately, attacks like this are nothing new for the French Jewish community. Nearly 50% of all racist acts in the country are anti-Semitic, even as Jews constitute only 1% of the overall population. In the past year, Jews have been pepper-sprayed, stabbed and shot, while Jewish cemeteries, synagogues and restaurants were vandalized.
And these attacks are rising both in number and virulence. As JTA reported, “Last year, the Jewish community recorded a total of 241 violent attacks on Jews out of a total of 851 anti-Semitic incidents. The previous year, those figures were 105 and 423, respectively.”
Yair Rosenberg is a senior writer at Tablet. Subscribe to his newsletter, listen to his music, and follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
