As France was plunged into a state of emergency after nearly two weeks of rioting by poor and disenfranchised immigrant youth, some Jewish leaders worried that the uprising could morph into anti-Semitic violence.
Many of the rioters are Arab Muslims, and the concern is that Islamic groups could exploit the situation, shifting the focus away from the domestic issues thought to have touched off the riots – racism, urban poverty and the failures in immigrant absorption – and toward the approximately 600,000 Jews in France.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email