A man wearing a Star of David pendant necklace was allegedly attacked by two men on Friday, with one man filing and another striking the victim on the head while calling him a “dirty Jew.”
A French Jew was assailed in an antisemitic street attack in Villeurbanne on Friday, according to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes district’s prefecture and local politicians. This is the third antisemitic attack in the Lyon area commune in just over a month.
A man wearing a Star of David pendant necklace was allegedly assaulted by two men on Friday, Le Progrès reported, with one person filming and another striking the victim on the head while calling him a “dirty Jew” and “dirty fascist.”
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Condemning the attack
The prefecture assured on social media that France’s National Police were investigating the attack, and Prefect Fabienne Buccio said that she was determined to fight antisemitic incidents and would not let the perpetrators go unpunished.
Villeurbanne’s Mayor, Cédric Van Styvendael, decried the antisemitic assault in a Saturday Facebook post, promising to do everything to fight against “all forms of violence.”
A member of the Jewish community prays at a synagogue in Orleans, central France, on March 23, 2025, the day after an attack to the rabbi of Orleans, for which a minor has been arrested (credit: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP)Enlrage image
A member of the Jewish community prays at a synagogue in Orleans, central France, on March 23, 2025, the day after an attack to the rabbi of Orleans, for which a minor has been arrested (credit: JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP)
“I hope that full light will be shed on this and that the perpetrators will be identified, arrested, and brought to justice without delay,” said Van Styvendael. “Impunity is not an option.”
La France Insoumise National Assembly member Gabriel Amard condemned the Tonkin Street attack on X/Twitter and called for the swift identification and prosecution of the attackers.
“Hate has no place in our city,” Amard wrote. “Let’s not let hate speech divide us.”
Former Villeurbanne mayor and former Socialist Party MP Jean-Paul Bret said that repeated incidents in the city required more than just outrage. On Instagram on Sunday, Bret called for a special city council meeting on the issue and for the dissemination of information against antisemitism on public transportation.
Le Progrès reported that on March 17, a 46-year-old woman on her way to a Hebrew class was called a “dirty Jew” by a woman in a black veil before being pushed up against a wall, stuck, spat on, and threatened that her throat would be slit if the attacker ever spotted her again. The outlet also reported the violent March 8 attack on a Jewish man that left him with multiple fractures.
Equality Minister Aurore Bergé noted the Friday Villeurbanne incident as part of a larger trend that included the Saturday clash between anti-Israel activists and pedestrians outside a Jewish-owned Strasbourg bakery.
According to officials, the Dreher bakery was not attacked or targeted. Still, a video of an encounter between anti-Israel activists and other residents outside the shop circulated on social media. It showed a mass of Palestinian flag-waving protesters surrounding the site. Police could be seen standing between the protesters and the shop. The video’s original poster said in a Sunday X post that the target was a pro-Israeli opponent, not the bakery.
A march was planned for Saturday by Collectif Strasbourg Palestine, according to the group’s Instagram account. The protest route detailed in a Thursday Rue89 Strasbourg report would have brought the march past the bakery.
Bergé condemned the incident on X, calling for all of society to act, noting that anti-Zionism had become the new face of the antisemitic prejudice that had killed so many in France in recent years.
