Jewish gravestones damaged (archives)
Photo: Irena Edelstein
French rabbi attacked in Paris train station
Elie Dahan insulted and struck in face while walking along corridor in Gare du Nord station by man who fled before he could be identified
A French rabbi was attacked at a Paris railway station by a man who fled before he could be identified, police said on Thursday.
Elie Dahan, grand rabbi of the Nord Pas de Calais region in northern France, was insulted and struck in the face as he walked along a corridor in the Gare du Nord station, although it was not immediately clear what motivated the attack.
Dahan need brief hospital treatment for his injuries.
"We are not sure, for the moment, what the nature of this act was," a police official said.
CRIF, the representative council of Jewish institutions in France, said it was deeply upset by the attack.
France has been troubled by a number of anti-Semitic incidents in recent months and the country was shocked by the murder last year of a young Jewish man at the hands of a group of kidnappers.
CRIF said earlier this year there had been a sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2006, partly due to last year's war in Lebanon when Israeli troops battled Hezbollah forces.
Earlier this month, dozens of Jewish gravestones were damaged in a cemetery in the northern city of Lille. A man was arrested this week but police said his motivations appeared "confused" and they suspected he may have been drunk.
