Paris Jew says he was beaten in robbery-turned-hate crime

Several men allegedly assaulted and robbed a Jewish man in Paris, who says the attackers hit him because he was wearing a Star of David pendant around his neck.

The incident occurred at around 3 a.m. on Monday morning, the victim tells police, according to a report by the France Bleu radio station. The man is not named in the report.

The complaint, as summarized by the radio station, says the man was crossing the Alexandre III Bridge over the Seine river in Paris’ center, near the prestigious Champs-Elysee Avenue and shopping area.

A man on a scooter drove up to the Jewish man and yanked the pendant off his neck from behind, in what up to that point appeared to be a random grab-and-run robbery, the man says. But upon seeing the chain had a Star of David pendant, the alleged culprit shouted “dirty Jew” at the complainant, he tells police.

A second scooter arrived with a driver and a passenger, who descended and started beating the complainant. The attackers, who have not been identified, then stole the man’s cellphone and wallet, he tells police.

In addition to anti-Semitic assaults motivated purely by racist hatred, French Jews have reported an increase in the number of incidents featuring both financial and hateful incentives. Some of these cases are robberies where the victims were selected because they are Jewish, whereas others began as random criminal acts before escalating into violent assaults following the perpetrators’ discovery of the victim’s Jewish identity.

— JTA