‘Dirty Jew’ spray-painted on Judaica shop in France
Owners of store in Lyon reportedly considering cutting short their vacation in Israel to return to file police complaint
Anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted Thursday on a Judaica store in the French city of Lyon.
The graffiti read: “Dirty Jew.”
The owners of the store were in Israel on vacation for the High Holidays when they were told about the graffiti, according to Army Radio.
They are reportedly considering cutting short their trip to return to France to file a police complaint.
אירוע אנטישמי בליון שבצרפת: על קיר חנות למוצרי יודאיקה נכתב אמש "יהודי מלוכלך". יעקב חגואל, סגן יו"ר ההסתדרות הציונית, בתגובה: "הנגע האנטישמי באירופה מתגבר כמחלה חשוכת מרפא. אפנה לממונה על המאבק באנטישמיות באיחוד האירופאי לכינוס דחוף לגיבוש תכנית פעולה בנושא"@AnnaBarskiy pic.twitter.com/gqLe3Gu4LW
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) October 18, 2019
“The anti-Semitism problem in Europe is intensifying as an incurable disease,” Yaakov Hagoel, the vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, wrote on Twitter.
Hagoel said he would ask the head of the European Union’s commission for combating anti-Semitism to call an urgent meeting to draft a plan of action to counter Jew hatred.
A recent surge in anti-Semitic violence and hate speech has prompted soul-searching for many in France, which has long wrestled with its history of discrimination and prejudice against Jews.
The number of anti-Jewish offenses reported to police rose to 541 last year from 311 in 2017, after falling for two years.
Dozens of Jewish cemeteries have been desecrated, and swastikas have been found scrawled on the doors of people’s homes. One elderly Holocaust survivor was even murdered in a grisly attack thought to be motivated in part by anti-Semitism.
AFP contributed to this report.
