French Jewish man verbally abused, badly beaten up in Paris elevator in anti-Semitic assault.
An anti-Semitism monitoring organization in Paris has disclosed that a young Jewish man was badly beaten up last Thursday in the building where his parents lived.
A statement on Tuesday, the National Bureau for Vigilance and Countering Antisemitism (BNVCA) — a group that advocates for victims of anti-Semitic violence — said that it “denounces and condemns” the assault, which occurred in an apartment building in the 19th arrondissement district of the French capital where a sizable Jewish community lives.
According to the BNVCA, the man — identified only as David S. — had arrived in the building to visit his parents when he was followed by two men, described as being of “African origin,” into the elevator.
During the ride, one of the men told the victim, “Dirty Jew, dirty Jewish son of a whore, you’re a dead man, dirty Jew.” The pair then attacked David with heavy blows that left him unconscious for several minutes. He was reported to be recovering from his ordeal.
A survey of anti-Semitism in France published by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in January found that nearly one quarter of the country’s 500,000 Jews had been subjected to at least one violent anti-Semitic assault in their lifetimes.
“Twenty-three percent have been targets of physical violence on at least one occasion, with 10 percent saying they were attacked several times,” the AJC survey noted, calling the statistics “stunning.”