More than dozen Torah scrolls stolen from Paris synagogue

France recorded 1,320 antisemitic incidents in 2023, accounting for 53% of anti-religious acts, according to the Ministry of the Interior.

By Shira Li Bartov, JTA

Over a dozen Torah scrolls have been stolen from a French synagogue in an attack the local rabbi called “antisemitic.”

The burglary hit the Grand Synagogue of Levallois-Perret, a wealthy suburb of Paris, between Sunday night and Monday morning. Rabbi Chalom Lellouche said the Jewish community was “violated” by the theft.

“It is, of course, a criminal act, but it is also an antisemitic act that specifically targeted the Torah,” Lellouche said in a joint video statement on Monday with Philippe Cohen, the president of the local Jewish community association.

Levallois Mayor Agnès Pottier-Dumas said on Instagram that she learned with “shock and anger” of the attack, adding that “the antisemitic nature of this vile act must be condemned.”

She confirmed that municipal and national police were investigating.

The des Hauts-de-Seine prefecture, which handles local state administration, said on X that the stolen scrolls represented not just a “simple theft,” but “an entire community of believers that was wounded to the depths of its soul.”

Prefect Alexandre Brugère and elected officials met with Jewish communal leaders in Levallois on Monday evening, promising to identify the thieves and secure the return of the scrolls.

Cohen said the burglary was the work of a “professional team” that bypassed security systems and the synagogue’s security was being reassessed.

He called the incident “a profound spiritual trauma for the entire Jewish community in France and around the world.”

“It was the Torah — and only the Torah — that was targeted,” said Cohen. “No property was damaged, and nothing else was stolen apart from Torah items of immeasurable value.”

France recorded 1,320 antisemitic incidents in 2023, accounting for 53% of anti-religious acts, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Jews make up less than 1% of the French population.