French chief rabbi gets letter threatening 'brutal actions'

Letter calls French Jewish journalists ‘Communist agents’; synagogue in eastern France defaced with swastikas

PARIS (JTA) — The chief rabbi of France has received a letter from an obscure organization warning of “brutal actions” against French Jewish journalists.

“Before we take brutal measures, the only ones at our disposal, we approach you because those corrupt journalists are Jewish,” read the letter recently sent to Rabbi Gilles Bernheim in Paris. It was signed by a hitherto unknown organization called IFO, a French acronym for Interaction of Forces of Order, the Metro daily reported on Thursday.

The letter said the journalists were acting as Communist agents and attempting to “curb liberty in France.”

Those behind IFO also sent a death threat this week to Jean-Michel Gentil, the judge who ordered a criminal investigation of the actions of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy is accused of illicitly obtaining funds from the billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.

Separately, unidentified individuals carved five swastikas on Tuesday onto the wooden doors of a synagogue in Haguenau, in eastern France. A representative of the city’s Jewish community reported the incident to police.