(JTA) — Two men pointed what appeared to be firearms at police stationed outside a Paris synagogue in one of several anti-Semitic incidents in and near the French capital.
The incident involving the police officers occurred Saturday outside the synagogue on Julien Lacroix Street in eastern Paris, according to a report posted the following day on the website of the National League for Vigilance Against anti-Semitism, or BVCA.
The two men approached the police officers on motorcycles when one of them produced what appeared to be a handgun, pointed it at one police officer and shouted “bang bang.” His accomplice did the same with what appeared to be an AK-47 assault rifle before escaping. The synagogue was empty at the time.
Other incidents included two assaults of Jews on the subway. On June 12, the anti-Semitic taunting by three passengers against a Jewish man and woman escalated into a physical assault of the man, according to the BNVCA report.
An hour earlier, a Jewish girl, 14, was assaulted while traveling on a subway to her Jewish school in northeastern Paris. Three young girls and an adolescent, whom she described as having African and Middle Eastern appearance, pushed the girl around and said “f*** your whole race.”
Also Saturday, various objects including a knife were hurled into the interior yard of a synagogue in Garges les Gonesses, a northern suburb of Paris. The objects were thrown down at the synagogue from apartments around the place of worship, BNVCA wrote. The synagogue was not damaged and no one was hurt.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
