PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the “poison of anti-Semitism” after a shocking attack on the chief rabbi in the city of central Orleans. French authorities regard the incident as an anti-Semitic hate crime.
Rabbi Arié Engelberg was attacked while walking in the city center with his young son on Saturday night. Local media reported that the suspect had an anti-Semitic insult to the rabbi and then physically attacked him.
Macron wrote in an article on X: “The attacks of the Orleans on Rabbi Ali Engelberg shocked us all. I gave him, his son and all our fellow Jewish faith, my entire support and the country…we will not succumb to silence or inaction.”
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed that the suspect was arrested shortly after the attack and transferred to a psychiatric college. He posted on X: “The greatest firmness I condemn is the anti-Semitic attack by Chief Rabbi Oleins. He has all my support. The suspect was arrested and placed in a psychiatric facility.”
Damanin later added: “France cannot allow itself to be a stage for foreign tensions that fuel violence and anti-Semitism.”
“No, anti-Semitism is not a ‘residual’,” Yonathan Arfi, chairman of the Council of Representatives of the French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), responded to X. “Those who minimize conflicts through 4,000 kilometers have relatively reduced Jewish hatred to bear a huge responsibility for Jewish hatred.”
According to local media reports, the rabbi was not seriously injured, but was shocked. Orleans Mayor Serge Grouard condemned “heinous and intolerable behavior”, calling it a “grave attack on the values of our Republic.”
France is home to the largest Jewish population in Western Europe, with an estimated 500,000 Jews, accounting for 1% of the national population. It is the third largest Jewish community in the world after Israel and the United States. This prominence makes France often a flashpoint for the rise of anti-Semitism, especially at a time when international conflicts intensify.
Anti-Semitism has surged in recent years, with a sharp increase reportedly in 2023, when the Hamas attacks occurred in Israel on October 7. These include physical attacks, threats, vandalism and harassment, which have raised alarms from the Jewish community and leaders.
According to data released by the French Ministry of Interior on Sunday, 1,570 anti-Semitism were recorded in 2024, accounting for 62% of all religiously motivated hate crimes in the country. Although this is down 6% from the previous year, the ministry notes that 65% of these actions are directed to individuals – unlike anti-religious incidents against other beliefs, which often involve property. Physical or personal attack year increased by 3% year-on-year.
Thomas Adamson, Associated Press
