Over half of the anti-religious acts committed in France in 2025 were against Jews, the French Interior Ministry revealed last week.
The new Anti-Religious Acts Report 2025 found that almost 2,500 antireligious acts were carried out last year, similar to the number in 2024.
Of these, 1320 acts were antisemitic in nature, constituting 53% of the total. While this did represent a 16% decrease as compared to 2024, the Ministry noted that antisemitic acts remain at a historically high level. The ministry added that, over the last 25 years, they have never been as high as since the attack of October 7, 2023.
Among the recorded antisemitic attacks are numerous physical attacks, including the assault of Orleans Rabbi Arie Engelberg, the two assaults of Rabbi Elie Lemmel, and multiple others. Verbal or online hatred represent 67% of the total antisemitic acts.
Aside from antisemitic attacks, the Ministry recorded 843 anti-Christian acts, an increase of 9% compared to 2024. These anti-Christian acts represent 34% of the total anti-religious acts. The majority of these were crimes against property accounts (87%), while physical and verbal attacks or online hate represent only 13%.
Anti-Muslim acts increased in 2025
A total of 326 anti-Muslim acts were recorded, an increase of 88% compared to 2024. These anti-Muslim acts represented 13% of all anti-religious acts, and were mainly composed of physical, verbal, and online hate attacks.
France is set to pass a new law against antisemitism in the coming weeks.
The bill, brought by Jewish MP Caroline Yadan, has already passed the National Assembly law committee. It aims to combat modern forms of antisemitism by making three key expansions to existing law.
Firstly, it makes implicit praise of antisemitism punishable, not just explicit approval. Secondly, it treats praising perpetrators the same as praising acts of antisemitism. Thirdly, it considers downplaying or trivializing terrorism as a form of praise.
This would expand Holocaust denial from express denial to also include gross minimization or trivialization, and it would criminalize comparisons between Israel and the Nazis.
It also introduces a new crime: publicly calling for the destruction of a state recognized by France, which violates the right of peoples to self-determination, as outlined in the UN Charter.
On Monday, Aurore Berge, France’s minister for gender equality and the fight against discrimination, who is currently in Israel for a two-day visit, told Ynet that “France is honored to become one of the only countries in the world with such a clear law on this issue. We hope other countries will follow our example.”
She also resolutely called anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism, saying that any distinction “is deliberately created by antisemites.”
“Anti-Zionism is fuel for antisemitism, and I will not allow it to ignite in France,” she told Ynet. "Anti-Zionism is a new form of antisemitism.”