France has witnessed a shocking surge in antisemitic incidents since the October 7 Hamas massacre in southern Israel. A staggering 819 such acts have been reported – nearly double the total for all of 2022, according to the latest report confirmed on Monday by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
This surge has sent shock waves throughout the French Jewish community, with many expressing a deep sense of fear and dread reminiscent of darker periods in history. The sudden increase has raised alarming questions about the state of tolerance and security for Jews in France.
“Today, in France, in 2023, I am French, Jewish, and... I am afraid,” Alice said about her experiences since the terrorist attack.
She told French broadcast network BFMTV how she had instructed her children to “take off their stars,” referring to the Star of David commonly worn by Jews, and emphasized the need to be cautious at all times.
“Take off your stars. Be careful,” she said. “We say that to ourselves all day. Be careful. Be careful. We don’t know what else. We don’t know how. But we tell each other.”
Are the Jews of France safe amid rising antisemitism?
As reported exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, several Jewish schools in Paris and its suburbs were evacuated Monday morning and afternoon because of a bomb threat.
“There was a bomb threat [directed at] many Jewish schools,” a senior Jewish community leader told the Post. “Some of these schools have been evacuated. In most schools, parents were asked to take their children home.”
The anonymous threat was that “bombs would blow up in 20 different Jewish schools in the Paris area,” the source added.
On Tuesday, about 60% of parents of children in Parisian Jewish schools decided to keep them home because of the fragile situation, according to a source in the French Jewish educational system.
France is home to the largest Jewish community and the largest Muslim community in Europe.
The French Interior Ministry has called for increased security measures at places of worship and Jewish schools, BFMTV reported. For some people, however, this heightened security does little to ease their concerns.
“It still says something about the imminence and reality of the danger,” Alice said.
Many photos on social media this week have displayed antisemitic graffiti that was spray-painted across France. According to French media, citing reports from the Seine-Saint-Denis Town Hall, a local house had Stars of David “stenciled on the walls.”
About 60 Stars of David were spray-painted early Tuesday morning in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, according to the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, BFMTV reported.
“There is a surge in antisemitic acts here in France, but thank God, to date, there weren’t any physical assaults,” Rabbi Moshe Sabag of the Great Synagogue in Paris told the Post on Tuesday. “Yet this makes the Jewish community very anxious.”
Antisemitic attacks should not be happening “because of a war in a different country,” he said. “There is a group here that hates Jews, and we are worried about how they will act. We want to send our children on the metro donning a kippah, but it’s a problem nowadays. It’s not like we’re hiding at home, but we are more careful.”
Many Jews have decided to hide their identities by taking down the mezuzah at the entrance to their homes and hanging it up inside, not in accordance with Halacha, Sabag said. A mezuzah is a parchment with Hebrew verses from the Torah affixed to doorposts in Jewish homes, typically in all doorways except bathrooms and small closets, and it is prepared by a trained scribe, using special ink and a quill pen, before being enclosed in a case.
“There are many families that suffered from bullies tearing down their mezuzah,” Sabag said.
“There was even a home whose door was burned down because of the mezuzah hanging on the wall next to the entrance,” he added.
“Local authorities are afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood here in France and how they can potentially harm the Jewish community,” Sabag said.
Seventy-two percent of the French public fear that a terrorist attack similar to the Hamas massacre on October 7 could occur in France, according to a study commissioned by the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and conducted by Ifop, a research institute for the Le Figaro newspaper.
The survey also demonstrated broad support for Israel, indicating that 65% of respondents supported Israel’s decision to fight Hamas and underpinning the consensus on the presidential position favoring Israel.