Thursday, June 7, 2012

Jews In France Express Alarm in Anti-Semitism; See a "Shocking Surge" of Anti-Semitic Violence

The France 24 website reports today (June 7, 2012) that France's Jewish communities have expressed alarm over a rise in anti-Semitic incidents since last March's deadly shootings of a rabbi and three schoolchildren in Toulouse.

On June 2, three people -- who were wearing the Jewish skullcap -- were attacked by a group of assailants with a hammer and iron bar in the southeastern French city of Villeurbanne.

The new assault has revived fears in France's Jewish community that anti-Semitism is on the rise in the wake of the grisly shooting in Toulouse. That attack -- carried out by radical Islamist Mohammed Merah -- sent shockwaves through France, which is home to Western Europe's largest Jewish community, with some 500,000 people.

After the June 2nd incident, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions -- France's most prominent Jewish association -- released a statement noting that the attack was "far from being an isolated act" and "part of the shocking surge of anti-Semitic violence that has followed the deadly attack at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse."

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