French Jew Wearing Kippah Threatened With Hammer
(JTA) — A Jewish man told police in the French city of Marseille that he had been assaulted on the street while wearing a kippah by another man wielding a hammer.
The incident took place on Tuesday morning approximately half a mile from the Grand Synagogue of Marseille, the man told police according to a report in the newspaper La Provence.
The alleged attacker produced a hammer, threatened the complainant and tapped him with the instrument without injuring him before fleeing the scene, the Jewish man reportedly told police. His deposition did not offer clear indications that the incident was a hate crime, according to La Provence.
Tzvi Amar, president of the local office of the Consistoire, the French Jewish community’s organization responsible for religious services, said last January that Jews should “remove the kippah during these troubled times” because “the preservation of life is sacrosanct.”
Amar’s statement came after the stabbing of a Jewish man in Marseille in January of 2016 allegedly by a 15-year-old Muslim radical. He sustained minor injuries.
In October 2015, a French man of Algerian descent stabbed a Jewish man who was returning from synagogue and assaulted two others, including a rabbi.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.
