Paris, France - Three Jewish Teens Wearing Yarmulkas Assaulted In Paris

Paris, France - French police search for the aggressors of three Jewish men wearing a kippa or yarmulke who were attacked Saturday by a group of youths of similar age in Paris while walking to a synagogue for the Shabbat office.

According to Raphael Haddad, head of the Union of Jewish students in France, the three victims -aged 17 and 18- were struck by stones and blows thrown by a group of ten young men, who later escaped.

The victims, who lodged a complaint to police, were treated in hospital. One of them is suffering from wounds at the face.

A spokesman for the Interior Minister confirmed Sunday the anti-Semitic character of this attack. “We have enough elements to confirm it,” Gérard gachet, a spokesman for Interior Minister Michèle Allio-Marie said.

The minister condemned «with the utmost firmness the anti-Semitic violence against young Jews going to the synagogue.”

A similar attack occurred in the same area of Paris’s 19th district on June 22 when Rudy Haddad, a 17-year- old Jewish man was severely injured. He too was wearing the Jewish religious head covering and was leaving a nearby synagogue after Saturday’s prayer office.
The Bureau of Vigilance against anti-Semitism, a group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France, stressed the growing feeling of insecurity of Jews living in the Buttes de Chaumont area area in the 19th district of Paris.

The group urged the French capital’s Mayor to reinforce police forces in the area in view of the upcoming Jewish High Holidays.