PARIS (JTA) — At least 55 anti-Semitic acts occurred in France since Israel’s Gaza operation began, according to a report.
On Monday, the Jewish Student Union of France published a list of "violent" and "worrisome" crimes aimed at Jews since the start of the Israeli offensive in the strip.
Their findings were delivered to a meeting on interreligious tension in France led by Urban Affairs Minister Fadela Amara.
Meanwhile, a rabbi from the eastern Paris suburb of Vincennes received death threats addressed to "all Jews in France," the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism reported Wednesday.
"You will live in fear, the death of all Jews is to come," read Monday’s letter signed by a group calling itself the Raza Ramzou el Rizaa, and identifying itself as French.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned Monday that rising anti-Semitic crime "would not go unpunished." The same day, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said violent components to recent pro-Palestinian protests "incited violence" and needed to be surveyed closely. She added that some anti-Muslim crimes also were reported.
On Sunday night, nine Molotov cocktails were launched at a Lubavitch synagogue and Jewish community center in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. No injuries were reported. Firebombs were thrown the same day at a Strasbourg community building.
Rabbi Mendel Belinow of the Saint-Denis synagogue told JTA Wednesday that a large Sabbath service was planned for the weekend as a sign that "we won’t let our arms down" and that "this won’t stop us from developing Judaism."
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