(JTA) — A 20-year-old Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant was mugged and robbed twice outside Marseille’s main train station.
Two men on a scooter approached the victim on Monday outside Saint-Charles, a busy train station and shopping mall, and one tore the golden chain from his neck, the La Provence daily reported. They called him a “dirty Jew” before fleeing on the scooter, with one of the alleged assailants carrying the pendant.
A group of young men nearby then approached and hurled anti-Semitic insults at the victim before stealing an MP3 player and 100 euros, according to Metro, another daily paper. They also reportedly hit the victim.
Metro reported that police were treating the case not only as a robbery but mainly as an anti-Semitic attack.
The president of the Marseille metropolitan area, Eugene Caselli, condemned the incident, which he termed anti-Semitic.
“I want to reassure the family of the victim and the victim of my support and extend my sympathies,” Caselli said in a statement. “I want to express my profound indignation and rage at this unacceptable act of racist violence.”
Though France has seen a 45 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the eight months since last March, when an Islamist fanatic killed four Jews in Toulouse, Marseille has seen relatively few such attacks.
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