CRIF: Antisemitic Incidents Nearly Quadrupled in France in 2023

By Hamodia Staff

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif) published its annual report on antisemitic incidents in France on Wednesday night.

As per the report, in 2023 there was a surge in such acts, with 1,676 incidents recorded compared to 436 the previous year, marking an increase following the bloody terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel on Simchas Torah. The number of antisemitic acts in the three months that followed equaled the cumulative total of the three previous years.

In 2023, the recorded antisemitic acts occurred in 632 cities and in 95 out of 101 departments, covering 94% of the departments. 57.8% of the antisemitic acts involved attacks on individuals (physical violence, threatening words and gestures, distribution of leaflets and letters) rather than property, and 32% occurred in private spheres. 20.4% of the acts took place in public spaces, and 12.7% occurred in educational settings, with a majority in secondary schools. Crif noted “a significant rejuvenation of the perpetrators of antisemitic acts, with schools no longer representing a sanctuary.”

Since Simchas Torah, as images of the massacre of Israeli civilians were broadcast, antisemitic acts increased by more than 700% compared to the average daily observed in previous years.

This reaction had previously been observed during the upsurge of antisemitic acts following the attack on the Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and after the Hyper Cacher attack in 2015.

The report concludes that “the media coverage of the massacre of Jews triggers an increase in antisemitic acts.”