Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a synagogue in Paris late Monday night, French police confirmed.
A bullet, apparently fired from an automatic weapon at about 9:30 PM, hit the window of the David Ben Ichay synagogue on rue Andre-Danjon, in the 19th district of the French capital.
The round went through a closed window of the synagogue’s office where the rabbi and his assistant were when the attack occurred, but neither was hit.
The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a Jewish group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France, alerted police who opened an investigation into the attack, after finding the bullet.
Police are searching for two suspects seen in the vicinity at the time of the attack.
The BNVCA hopes the ballistics forensics services will be able to conclusively determine whether the shot was fired from the street or from a nearby building.
The group called on French authorities to do everything possible to “identify and question the anti-Jewish criminals” and reiterated that “anti-Semitic acts are increasing in France and that recent attacks by radical Islamists in Joue-les-Tours, Dijon and Nantes are rooted in a misguided Palestinianism and visceral anti-Zionism.”
On Sunday and Monday, in separate incidents, two French drivers intentionally plowed into pedestrians with their vehicles shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is greater”), injuring dozens. It has not been determined whether the drivers' motives were terror-related, but the perpetrator of one of the attacks reportedly shouted “this is in the name of the children of Palestine.”
Earlier this month, a gruesome anti-Semitic assault occurred in Creteil, near Paris, when a young Jewish couple was robbed in their home and the woman was sexually assaulted.
Some 300 French soldiers are being deployed to provide increased security in some areas, in the wake of the series of what local officials are calling unrelated attacks.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews live in France.
Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the representative body of French Jewish organizations, has issued an extraordinary warning concerning the potential fate of his community.
“Jews will leave in large numbers and France will fall into the hands of either Shari’a Law or the Front National,” he told a rally against anti-Semitism organized after the attack in Creteil.
According to preliminary figures, the number of French Jews leaving France for Israel could top 7,000 this year.

by Joseph Byron Unidentified gunmen opened fire at a synagogue in Paris late Monday night, French police confirmed.
A bullet, apparently fired from an automatic weapon at about 9:30 PM, hit the window of the David Ben Ichay synagogue on rue Andre-Danjon, in the 19th district of the French capital.
The round went through a closed window of the synagogue’s office where the rabbi and his assistant were when the attack occurred, but neither was hit.
The National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism (BNVCA), a Jewish group monitoring anti-Semitic incidents in France, alerted police who opened an investigation into the attack, after finding the bullet.
Police are searching for two suspects seen in the vicinity at the time of the attack.
The BNVCA hopes the ballistics forensics services will be able to conclusively determine whether the shot was fired from the street or from a nearby building.
The group called on French authorities to do everything possible to “identify and question the anti-Jewish criminals” and reiterated that “anti-Semitic acts are increasing in France and that recent attacks by radical Islamists in Joue-les-Tours, Dijon and Nantes are rooted in a misguided Palestinianism and visceral anti-Zionism.”
On Sunday and Monday, in separate incidents, two French drivers intentionally plowed into pedestrians with their vehicles shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is greater”), injuring dozens. It has not been determined whether the drivers' motives were terror-related, but the perpetrator of one of the attacks reportedly shouted “this is in the name of the children of Palestine.”
Earlier this month, a gruesome anti-Semitic assault occurred in Creteil, near Paris, when a young Jewish couple was robbed in their home and the woman was sexually assaulted.
Some 300 French soldiers are being deployed to provide increased security in some areas, in the wake of the series of what local officials are calling unrelated attacks.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews live in France.
Roger Cukierman, president of CRIF, the representative body of French Jewish organizations, has issued an extraordinary warning concerning the potential fate of his community.
“Jews will leave in large numbers and France will fall into the hands of either Shari’a Law or the Front National,” he told a rally against anti-Semitism organized after the attack in Creteil.
According to preliminary figures, the number of French Jews leaving France for Israel could top 7,000 this year.

by Joseph Byron