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Jewish Teens Targeted With Tear Gas in Paris

Two boys wearing yarmulkes sprayed by a group of teens on Saturday night

by
Stephanie Butnick
June 10, 2014
(FCG / Shutterstock.com)
(FCG / Shutterstock.com)

Yesterday we reported on the disturbing incident in the Paris suburb of Romainville in which two Jewish teenagers and their grandfather were chased by a man with an ax on their way to synagogue last week for Shavuot. Over the weekend, in an equally bizarre attack, two Jewish teens were sprayed with tear gas on Saturday night in Sarcelles, a Paris suburb about 16 km from Romainville, JTA reports. As in the previous incident, the boys were wearing yarmulkes.

The attack was caught on tape by a security camera. The National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, an organization that monitors attacks on Jews throughout France, said the attack was carried out by a group of teenage boys who appeared to be North African.

Since it bears repeating (and since it’s taking longer and longer to write out), here’s a quick history of the various anti-Semitic attacks in Paris this year, from our Scroll post yesterday:

Last month, a Jewish woman with a baby was attacked at a Paris bus station by a man who shouted “Dirty Jewess” at her. In March, a Jewish teacher leaving a kosher restaurant in Paris had his nose broken by a group of assailants who also drew a swastika on his chest. One week earlier, an Israeli man was attacked with a stun gun outside a Paris synagogue, and a week before that a 28-year-old Jewish man was beaten on the Paris metro to chants of “Jew, we are going to lay into you, you have no country.” In a chilling video from January, anti-government demonstrators shout “Jew, France is Not Yours” as they march through the streets of Paris.

I guess we’ll add this one to the list, too.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.