Overview

• Rabbi Elie Lemmel was struck in the head by a chair at a café in Neuilly-sur-Seine on June 6, marking his second assault in a week after being punched in Deauville.
• The 28-year-old attacker, born in Rafah in the Gaza Strip and residing illegally in Germany, was taken into custody and placed under forced psychiatric evaluation.
• The Nanterre prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for aggravated assault with possible religious motives under France’s hate-crime statutes.
• Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned the attack as a shameful act of antisemitism and called for severe punishment and deportation.
• French data show 1,570 antisemitic acts in 2024, and last week’s green-paint vandalism of synagogues and memorials underscores rising threats to Jewish communities.