French Rabbi Attacked Twice in One Week Amid Growing Antisemitic Violence

A French rabbi was assaulted for the second time in just a week, he told Reuters on Friday, highlighting a disturbing surge in hate crimes across France that has included several antisemitic incidents.

Rabbi Elie Lemmel recounted that he had been sitting at a café in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris, when someone struck him on the head with a chair.

“I found myself on the ground, I immediately felt blood flowing,” he says.

Initially confused and dazed, Lemmel said he wasn’t sure what had occurred. He first believed something had fallen from a nearby rooftop or window before realizing he had been the target of an attack.

“Unfortunately, given my beard and my kippah, I suspected that was probably why, and it’s such a shame,” he says.

This morning’s assault follows a separate incident last week in the town of Deauville in Normandy, where Lemmel said a stranger punched him in the stomach.

While Lemmel shared that he was accustomed to “not-so-friendly looks, some unpleasant words, people passing by, spitting on the ground,” he emphasized that he had never faced physical violence until these two recent assaults.

According to prosecutors in Nanterre, an investigation has been opened into the Neuilly attack on charges of aggravated violence. One suspect is currently in custody for questioning, though authorities have not released additional information.

“This act sickens us,” former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal writes on X regarding Friday’s attack on Lemmel. “Antisemitism, like all forms of hatred, is a deadly poison for our society.”

Just last week, five Jewish sites across Paris were defaced with green paint.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the anti-Semitic attack that targeted a rabbi in Neuilly today. Attacking a person because of their faith is a shame. The increase in anti-religious acts requires the mobilization of everyone,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau says in a post on X.