Saint Denis rabbi says terror won’t affect Jewish life

The presence of terrorists in the Paris suburb of Saint Denis will not affect the daily life of the Jewish community there, the head of the local Chabad center says.

Rabbi Mendel Belinow says the community will only “increase the volume of its activities” following a raid Wednesday that ended with the death of two suspected terrorists and a police dog in the poor and heavily-Muslim suburb north of the capital.

No members of the Jewish community of Saint Denis, which has 15,000 to 20,000 congregants, are known to have been injured in the takeover, in which three police officers were wounded. One of the suspected terrorists, a woman wearing an explosive vest, died in an explosion she set off as counterterrorism troops were preparing to enter her hideout. Police arrested seven people.

“We are not suspending our activities, and are preparing to celebrate Hanukkah as usual,” Belinow says, adding he was “not surprised at all” by news that terrorists chose to hide in the municipality.

“It’s a difficult neighborhood, that is no stranger to extremism,” he says.

— JTA