16-Year-Old Arrested in Connection With Antisemitic Attack on Rabbi in France

Ailin Vilches Arguello

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Demonstrators in Paris gather in memory of Mireille Knoll, a Holocaust survivor brutally murdered in an antisemitic assault. Photo: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes.

Authorities in France have arrested a 16-year-old teenager in connection with the antisemitic attack on the Rabbi of Orléans, local media reported, as the country continues to face a rise in antisemitic incidents since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.

Arie Engelberg, the rabbi of Orléans, was attacked on Saturday afternoon while walking home with his nine-year-old son from the synagogue in the city, located south of Paris.

According to Engelberg, the attacker asked if he was Jewish, and when the rabbi replied yes, the assailant began hurling antisemitic insults, including “all Jews are sons of —,” and attempted to film him.

“I decided to act, and I pushed his telephone away,” the rabbi told BFM television. The attacker then allegedly started punching Engelberg and bit him until several people stepped in to help.

“I’m OK, thank God, my son, I’m getting better and better,” the victim said. “We’ve had an enormous amount of support.”

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French authorities are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime. According to local media, the suspect, arrested on Saturday night, was known under at least three identities – including one Moroccan and two Palestinian – but police are still verifying the assailant’s identity, as he was not carrying any documents when detained.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed the suspect was transferred to a psychiatric facility shortly after being arrested.

Over the weekend, approximately 300 people gathered at Bastille Square in Paris to denounce the attack. A silent march is also planned for Tuesday evening in Orléans.

In an interview with BDM, Engelberg said “it was just a question of time before suffering an antisemitic attack.”

But he explained that what matters is “how we react and to what degree.”

“I won’t change anything – actually the opposite,” he said. “I will continue to walk with pride, to express my Judaism with pride and to direct the Jewish community of Orleans.”

France is home to the largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack, calling antisemitism “a poison,” and expressed his solidarity with the rabbi’s family.

“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all,” Macron wrote in a post on X. “I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation. We will not give in to silence or inaction.”

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Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also condemned the attack, calling for “zero tolerance for antisemitism.”

“This is a vile and intolerable act,” Saar wrote in a post on X. “The resurgence of antisemitism in France and across Europe is not only alarming – it is a wake-up call to European governments, leaders, and civil society. Antisemitism is dangerous, and it demands an uncompromising response.

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Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews – denounced the attack, saying that “antisemitism is not ‘residual.’”

“Those who minimize, relativize, or justify hatred of Jews by a conflict 4,000 km away bear an immense responsibility,” Arfi posted on social media, referring to those targeting Jews over the war in Gaza.

Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded, according to a report by CRIF.

The total number of antisemitic outrages last year was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.

In late May and early June, antisemitic acts rose by more than 140 percent, far surpassing the weekly average of slightly more than 30 incidents.

The report also found that 65.2 percent of antisemitic acts last year targeted individuals, with more than 10 percent of these offenses involving physical violence.

One such incident occurred in June, when a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.

Antisemitism skyrocketed in France following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

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