French police have arrested a young man on suspicion of attacking a rabbi in broad daylight, a prosecutor said Sunday, shocking the Jewish community and prompting a wave of condemnation.
Arié Engelberg was assaulted as he walked with his nine-year-old son from synagogue on Saturday afternoon in the city, some 110 kilometres south of Paris.
After asking if Engelberg was Jewish, the man started insulting the rabbi while trying to film himself hurling the abuse.
"I decided to act and I pushed his telephone away," Engelberg told French broadcaster BFMTV. "He started punching and I protected myself, he added.
Engelberg said the man bit him until several people stepped in to help. "I'm OK. I'm getting better and better. We've had an enormous amount of support," he added.
A 16-year-old youth was arrested shortly after the attack and transferred to a psychiatric facility, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed.
Support
"I condemn with the greatest firmness the antisemitic attack of the Chief Rabbi of Orléans," Darmanin posted on social media platform X.
"He has all my support."
President Emmanuel Macron, also took to social media to echo his minister and condemn what he called the poison of antisemitism.
"The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all," said Macron.
"I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation … We will not give in to silence or inaction," Macron added.
On Monday morning, Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia called for unity in the face of an attack that was "pure hatred".
"We cannot play one against the other, we must face it together, that's what the Republic is all about," he told Franceinfo radio.
Spike in incidents
France is home to the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, several EU nations have reported a spike in anti-Muslim hatred and anti-Semitism since 7 October 2023 when the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a cross-border attack in Israel, resulting in the death of 1,205 people.
Israel's subsequent military offensive on Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, the majority of them civilians, according to figures released by the health ministry in the Hamas-run occupied Palestinian territory and deemed reliable by the United Nations.
On Sunday, around 300 people gathered at the Place de la Bastille in Paris to denounce the attack following an appeal by a Jewish students' association. A silent march is planned for Tuesday evening in Orléans.
France urges collective EU response to 'explosion' in anti-Semitism
André Druon, a Jewish community leader in the city, said there had been instances of antisemitic graffiti around Orléans before the assault on Engelberg.
"The rabbi was profoundly shaken when he recounted his ordeal to the community on Sunday," added Druon.
France witnessed some 1,570 anti-Semitic acts last year, the interior ministry says. They made up 62 percent of all acts of hatred on the basis of religion.
"No, antisemitism is not ‘residual,’" said Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), on social media.
"Those who minimise, relativise, or justify hatred of Jews by a conflict 4,000 km away bear an immense responsibility."
(with AFP)
