Suspected synagogue vandal arrested near Paris

Unnamed 21-year-old allegedly wrote ‘death to Jews’ near entrance

JTA — French police have reportedly arrested a 21-year-old man suspected of scrawling “death to Jews” on a synagogue near Paris.

The man is suspected of writing the message with a black marker on Nov. 7 or Nov. 8 on the entrance to the synagogue of Pantin in Seine-Saint-Denis near Paris, according to the municipality.

The radio network Europe1 reported that the man was arrested in the Paris suburb on Nov. 9 and was remanded. The 11-inch graffiti was discovered early the previous day when a group of “young men wearing hoods” was seen near the synagogue, according to the radio station’s report.

In a separate incident on Nov. 4, seven unidentified people attacked an Orthodox Jewish man in Sacrelles, near the French capital. They pelted the 55-year-old with eggs as he was making his way to his synagogue, according to the French daily Le Parisien, then hit him on his legs after he turned around and walked away from them.

The report did not say whether the attack at Sarcelles was anti-Semitic in nature.

In September, members of what French police described as “a dangerous jihadist network” tossed a homemade grenade into a supermarket in Sarcelles, home to some 60,000 Jews. One man sustained minor injuries in the explosion.