On Sunday night three Molotov cocktails were thrown at the
Otzar HaTorah school in the Jewish quarter of Creteil. The
attackers also tried to burn and destroy a nearby beis
medrash, but were interrupted by police who arrested two
of them. The next day a third was arrested.
Police and even Jewish authorities merely said that three
"individuals" were arrested, without identifying them as of
Middle Eastern extraction.
Creteil is an eastern suburb of Paris with about 20,000
Jewish residents, many of them religious. Many Arab
immigrants live alongside the Jews, but until this incident
there was very little tension.
In France in general there is a sharp increase in the number
of people inquiring about immigrating to Israel. After
several years of declining aliyah from France, the Jewish
Agency for Israel has seen a 30 to 40 percent rise in
inquiries this fall, according to the director of its French
office, Dov Puder.
As of Nov. 15, French police had recorded 26 violent acts and
115 incidents of intimidation against Jews in 2001, according
to the Ministry of the Interior. CRIF, the umbrella
organization of secular Jewish groups throughout France,
claims the number is even higher.
The issue of antisemitism recently has become headline news
in the French media, but many Jewish leaders feel the
Socialist-led government has yet to take meaningful
action.
Speaking at the annual CRIF dinner at the beginning of
December, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin assured Jewish
notables of "the determination of the government to fight
against all forms of antisemitism."
Yet many in the community have grown disheartened that
Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant, the man most responsible
for national law enforcement policy, has continuously
disputed the seriousness of the threats French Jews face on a
daily basis.
