Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday slammed the unidentified perpetrators of vandalism at a Jewish school in Paris over the weekend.
“We strongly condemn the antisemitic acts of vandalism perpetrated against the Beth Loubavitch–Beth Hannah Jewish primary school in Paris’s 20th arrondissement,” the ministry said in a statement posted on X.
The incident resulted in minor damage to the building, but it prompted strong-worded condemnations both in Israel and France, where the targeting of Jewish schools recalls the murder of four Jews at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse by an Islamist in 2012.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday told Le Figaro that several unidentified individuals had broken three of the school’s windows, damaged a security camera and removed a sign that identifies the school as a Jewish establishment on Saturday night. The sign was found at a nearby park. The perpetrators did not penetrate the building and are therefore not wanted for a break-in, according to Le Figaro.
Police have not made arrests in the immediate aftermath of the incident, which they were treating as a potential antisemitic hate crime, per the report. The police station of the 20th arrondissement is investigating “damage aggravated by two circumstances [in a group and on religious grounds],” the European Jewish Press reported.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo appeared to view the incident as antisemitic. “These antisemitic acts of hatred, which I condemn with utmost firmness, belong neither in our city nor in our republic,” the Radio J Jewish station on Monday quoted Hidalgo as saying.
In its X statement, the Israeli Foreign Ministry also wrote: “We trust the French authorities to take firm measures and swiftly bring the perpetrators to justice. Hatred must be combated with determination, before it turns into violence against human lives.”
The Foreign Ministry’s statement was unusual, Yitzhak Eldan, a former ambassador and chief of protocol at the ministry, told JNS. The embassy in Paris, however, often reacts to antisemitic acts in France, adds Eldan.
“The ministry may have chosen to speak out here because of the sensitivity of a Jewish school after Toulouse,” Eldan said.
According to figures from France’s Ministry of the Interior, 1,570 antisemitic incidents were recorded in France in 2024. In the first eight months of 2025, 889 incidents were recorded. Figures for the whole of 2025 are expected to be published in mid-February.
