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Young woman attacked in heavily Jewish Paris suburb

The two unidentified men ripped her cellphone out of her hands and punched her in the face, asking “Are you afraid, you Jewess?”

A cafe in the historically Jewish Le Marais neighborhood of Paris, about an hour south of Sarcelles, on Dec. 5, 2017. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
A cafe in the historically Jewish Le Marais neighborhood of Paris, about an hour south of Sarcelles, on Dec. 5, 2017. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.

A young French Jewish woman was assaulted by two attackers in the heavily Jewish suburb of Sarcelles north of Paris on Monday, by two men who called her a “Jewess.”

The two unidentified men, whom the woman said were black, ripped her cellphone out of her hands and punched her in the face, asking “Are you afraid, you Jewess?”

The 20-year-old escaped to her home with a broken nose and bloody face, and called the police. The men fled the scene.

The French National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism called on police to apprehend the men and investigate the attack as a hate crime. In the first 10 months of 2018, France has reported a 69 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents over the same period last year.

“The World Jewish Congress stands with our community in France in deploring this vicious act of hatred against an innocent woman, whose only crime was being Jewish,” said World Jewish Congress CEO and vice president Robert Singer.

“Just as we cannot tolerate racist statements against any group or rhetoric that incites violence, we cannot accept discriminatory speech directed at Jewish Americans,” Rep. Dan Goldman wrote. “For these reasons, I voted to censure Rep. Tlaib.”
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