A synagogue in the eastern French city of Strasbourg was vandalized late Monday night by intruders who ransacked its offices and scrawled anti-Semitic slogans on the walls.
Vandals sneaked into the Meinau synagogue and systematically smashed whatever they could find in the offices. They also daubed the walls with such slogans as “Death to the Jews” and “Hitler will kill all the Jews.”
They were scared off the premises after the wife of the rabbi unexpectedly opened the door.
She noticed the alarm had been turned off and then saw the destruction. Too frightened to scream, she ran out and slammed the door behind her. She then heard the vandals running out through another exit.
Her appearance probably prevented the vandals from desecrating the sanctuary.
“Nothing seems to have been stolen,” the rabbi’s wife told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “They were just out to break everything.”
The attack was called a national issue by Jean Kahn, head of CRIF, the representative council of French Jewish groups, who is a founder of the Meinau synagogue.
“Democracy must prove its will to face the threats these aggressions involve,” he said. “Should they be renewed, should the culprits not be discovered and prevented from carrying on their criminal activities, then France, like Germany, would become a prey to violence.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
