Teens in Avignon Synagogue Arson Trial Get Justice, Are Thanked
— Two French teenagers who were suspected of trying to burn down a synagogue were exonerated by video footage showing they prevented a third and older person from setting the fire.
The incident, which resulted in neither injury nor damage, occurred on Monday in the southern city of Avignon, the Actualite Juive newspaper reported Wednesday.
The teens, 17 and 19, were arrested in front of the synagogue on Monday evening with a 23-year-old, who lit a case of firecrackers in front of the synagogue, causing some damage in a fire that risked spreading into the foyer.
After all three were arrested and led to interrogation, the two younger suspects were released because of the footage obtained from a security camera outside the synagogue. The remaining suspect, a resident of the eastern town of Chenove, confessed to starting a fire but said his actions were not motivated by anti-Semitism.
“It was the result of stupidity and alcohol,” a police source quoted the suspect as saying during questioning. The source added that he doubted whether the suspect “even knew he was in front of a synagogue.”
Virtually all of France’s synagogues and many other Jewish community facilities are now being protected by the police and military following the murder in 2015 of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris. Some 12,000 soldiers have been deployed at such sites as part of “Operation Sentinel.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30