Some 1,500 people rallied in Creteil, a Paris suburb, on Sunday to show support and solidarity with a young Jewish couple victim of a violent anti-Semitic attack in this city.
Addressing the crowd, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve vowed to vigorously confront rising anti-Semitism in France and pledged to "make the fight against racism and anti-Semitism a national cause."
This was not petty crime but a “cowardly, vile and anti-Semitic act,” said the minister. “Behind this crime, this is an evil that is eating away at the Republic and which needs to be fought at all costs.”
He said France would defend the Jewish community "with all its force."
"The Republic will defend you with all its force because, without you, it would no longer be the Republic," Cazeneueve declared.
Anti-Semitic acts and threats in France have more than doubled in the past 10 months, said Cazeneuve, who called for authorities to ensure that "none of them goes unpunished."
"Jews feel in danger. Some are already leaving France," stressed Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, the umbrella representative group of French Jewish organizations.
In an attack French President Francois Hollande has called "unbearable," several assailants allegedly broke into the flat of a young couple in Creteil on December 2, raping the woman and tying up her boyfriend. The assailants, who made off with jewelry and bank cards told the male victim that his flat had been targeted because he was Jewish and ‘’because Jews have money.’’
"We know that your brother is the manager of a big clothing chain. We know he has the cash till," one of the assailants reportedly said.
With between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews, France is home to the third-largest Jewish community the world after Israel and the United States. But in the first three months of 2014, more Jews have left France for Israel than at any other time since the Jewish state's inception in 1948.
France saw a spike in anti-Semitic sentiment this past summer as tensions over Israel's most recent bombing campaign in Gaza led to looters destroying Jewish businesses in and chanting anti-Jewish slogans.
"We feel that something has changed: it's no longer just graffiti or minor incidents, these are death threats [against the Jewish community] Cukierman said in an interview with French channel BFM TV.
"It cannot go on like this," he said.
Speaking on Sunday night on French television, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he was “surprised” there were not more demonstrations on the streets against anti-Semitism and racism.
“What happened in Creteil, this abominable crime, this violence, the rape of a young woman, (the attack on) a family because they are Jewish. That’s not France,” he said.