Elderly Orthodox Jew ‘brutally assaulted’ in Paris suburb
Victim struck repeatedly and called “a dirty Jew” while walking home
An Orthodox Jewish man was violently attacked and subjected to antisemitic abuse in a suburb south of Paris on Saturday morning.
The victim, 67-year-old Gilles Cohen, was on his way home from the mikveh when an assailant shouted, “Dirty Jew, I’m going to kill you,” before striking him several times. According to local media, the attacker rifled through Cohen’s pockets in search of money and synagogue keys.
Cohen was treated in hospital and later discharged with a 15-day work incapacity order. He lodged a complaint on Saturday evening, the Évry public prosecutor confirmed.
Grégoire Dulin, the prosecutor, said an investigation had been opened for attempted violent robbery and death threats “on religious grounds”. The Essonne territorial crime division has been tasked with the case, though no arrests have yet been made.
Mendel Gourevitch, a close friend and director of the Brunoy yeshiva, said Cohen’s eye was “very, very swollen” but praised his resilience: “He had the courage to come to services this morning. He didn’t want to give in to panic and fear.” Gourevitch added that the assault was unprecedented in what is usually a quiet area, leaving parents of local students especially anxious.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as “shocking”, describing Cohen as “brutally assaulted, struck in the face several times, and called a ‘dirty Jew’”. The ministry called it “an extremely serious act that reflects the alarming rise of antisemitism in France,” and urged French authorities to swiftly bring the perpetrator to justice.
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, the umbrella body for French Jewry, said the incident was part of a disturbing pattern of antisemitic assaults. “How long will this repeated hatred be tolerated?” he posted on X, insisting: “No one will uproot the Jews from France. But it is high time to uproot the antisemitism that is festering in society, using a conflict (1,800 miles) away as a pretext.”
According to France’s Interior Ministry, more than 640 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the first half of 2025. The figure represents a 27.5 percent fall from the same period in 2024, but a 112.5 percent surge compared with early 2023.
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