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16-Year-Old Arrested in Connection With Antisemitic Attack on Rabbi in France

Demonstrators in Paris gather in memory of Mireille Knoll, a Holocaust survivor brutally murdered in an antisemitic assault. Photo: Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes.
Authorities in France have arrested a 16-year-old teenager in connection with the antisemitic attack on the Rabbi of Orléans, local media reported, as the country continues to face a rise in antisemitic incidents since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
Arie Engelberg, the rabbi of Orléans, was attacked on Saturday afternoon while walking home with his nine-year-old son from the synagogue in the city, located south of Paris.
According to Engelberg, the attacker asked if he was Jewish, and when the rabbi replied yes, the assailant began hurling antisemitic insults, including “all Jews are sons of —,” and attempted to film him.
“I decided to act, and I pushed his telephone away,” the rabbi told BFM television. The attacker then allegedly started punching Engelberg and bit him until several people stepped in to help.
“I’m OK, thank God, my son, I’m getting better and better,” the victim said. “We’ve had an enormous amount of support.”
CRAZY FOOTAGE
In a shocking footage, Rabbi Aryeh Engelberg, 45, Chief Rabbi of Orléans, France was brutally assaulted in broad daylight—right in front of his son—as they walked home from synagogue on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/tKuWkDq2Au
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 23, 2025
French authorities are treating the incident as an antisemitic hate crime. According to local media, the suspect, arrested on Saturday night, was known under at least three identities – including one Moroccan and two Palestinian – but police are still verifying the assailant’s identity, as he was not carrying any documents when detained.
French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed the suspect was transferred to a psychiatric facility shortly after being arrested.
Over the weekend, approximately 300 people gathered at Bastille Square in Paris to denounce the attack. A silent march is also planned for Tuesday evening in Orléans.
In an interview with BDM, Engelberg said “it was just a question of time before suffering an antisemitic attack.”
But he explained that what matters is “how we react and to what degree.”
“I won’t change anything – actually the opposite,” he said. “I will continue to walk with pride, to express my Judaism with pride and to direct the Jewish community of Orleans.”
France is home to the largest Jewish population after Israel and the United States, as well as the largest Muslim community in the European Union.
French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attack, calling antisemitism “a poison,” and expressed his solidarity with the rabbi’s family.
“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all,” Macron wrote in a post on X. “I offer him, his son, and all our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith my full support and that of the nation. We will not give in to silence or inaction.”
L’agression du rabbin Arié Engelberg à Orléans nous choque tous. Je lui adresse, ainsi qu’à son fils et à tous nos compatriotes de confession juive, tout mon soutien et celui de la Nation.
L’antisémitisme est un poison. Nous ne céderons ni au silence ni à l’inaction.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) March 23, 2025
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar also condemned the attack, calling for “zero tolerance for antisemitism.”
“This is a vile and intolerable act,” Saar wrote in a post on X. “The resurgence of antisemitism in France and across Europe is not only alarming – it is a wake-up call to European governments, leaders, and civil society. Antisemitism is dangerous, and it demands an uncompromising response.”
Shocked by the attack on the Chief Rabbi of Orléans, Aryeh Engelberg, alongside his son, and I send him our wishes for a swift recovery.
This is a vile and intolerable act.
The resurgence of antisemitism in France and across Europe is not only alarming – it is a wake-up call to…— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) March 23, 2025
Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) – the main representative body of French Jews – denounced the attack, saying that “antisemitism is not ‘residual.’”
“Those who minimize, relativize, or justify hatred of Jews by a conflict 4,000 km away bear an immense responsibility,” Arfi posted on social media, referring to those targeting Jews over the war in Gaza.
Antisemitism in France continued to surge to alarming levels across the country last year, with 1,570 incidents recorded, according to a report by CRIF.
The total number of antisemitic outrages last year was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.
In late May and early June, antisemitic acts rose by more than 140 percent, far surpassing the weekly average of slightly more than 30 incidents.
The report also found that 65.2 percent of antisemitic acts last year targeted individuals, with more than 10 percent of these offenses involving physical violence.
One such incident occurred in June, when a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.
Antisemitism skyrocketed in France following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, amid the ensuing war in Gaza.
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New Poll: Majority of NYC Voters ‘Less Likely’ to Support Mamdani Over His Refusal to Condemn ‘Globalize the Intifada’

Zohran Mamdani. Photo: Ron Adar / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect
In a warning sign for the campaign of Democratic nominee for mayor of New York Zohran Mamdani, a majority of city voters in a new poll say the candidate’s hardline anti-Israel stance makes them less likely to vote for him.
In the survey of likely city voters conducted by American Pulse, 52.5 percent said Mamdani’s refusal to condemn the slogan “globalize the intifada” coupled with his backing of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement made them less likely to vote for him in November. Just 31% of city voters polled were more likely to support him because of these positions.
At the same time, a significant share of young New York City voters support Mamdani’s anti-Israel positioning, a striking sign of shifting generational views on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
Nearly half of voters aged 18 to 44 (46 percent) said the State Assembly member’s backing for BDS and “refusal to condemn the phrase ‘globalize the intifada’” made them more likely to support him.
Mamdani, a democratic socialist from Queens, has been under fire for defending “globalize the intifada,” a slogan many Jewish groups associate with incitement to violence against Israel and Jews. While critics argue it glorifies terrorism, supporters claim it’s a call for international solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially Palestinians. Mamdani has also voiced support for BDS, a movement widely condemned by mainstream Jewish organizations as antisemitic for singling out Israel.
The generational divide exposed by the poll comes amid a broader political realignment. Younger progressives across the country are increasingly critical of Israeli policies, especially in the wake of the Gaza war, and more receptive to Palestinian activism. But to many Jewish leaders, Mamdani’s rising support is alarming.
Rabbi David Wolpe, visiting scholar at Harvard University, condemned the phrase with a sarcastic analogy.
“‘Globalize the intifada’ is just a political slogan,” he said. “Like ‘The cockroaches must be exterminated’ was just a housing authority slogan in Rwanda.”
Jewish organizations have reported a surge in antisemitic incidents in New York and across the U.S. since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war last fall. The blending of anti-Zionist slogans with calls for “intifada,” historically linked to violent uprisings, has deepened fears among Jewish communities that traditional red lines are being crossed.
Whether this emerging coalition reshapes New York politics remains to be seen. However, the poll indicates that among younger voters, views that were once considered fringe are quickly moving into the mainstream.
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Report: Jews Targeted at June’s Pride Month Events

A Jewish gay pride flag. Photo: Twitter.
The research division of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) released a report on Wednesday detailing incidents of hate against Jews which took place last month during demonstrations in celebration of LGBTQ rights and identity.
Incidents reported by the group include:
- At a Pride march in Wales, the activists Cymru Queers for Palestine chose to block the path and show a sign that said “Profiting from genocide,” an attempt to link the event’s sponsors — such as Amazon — to the war in Gaza.
- A Dublin Pride march saw the participation of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which labeled Israel a “genocidal entity.”
- In Toronto at a late June Pride march, demonstrators again attacked organizers with a sign declaring, “Pride partners with genocide.”
CAM also identified a recurring narrative deployed against Israel by some far-left activists: so-called “pinkwashing,” a term which the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement calls “an Israeli government propaganda strategy that cynically exploits LGBTQIA+ rights to project a progressive image while concealing Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies oppressing Palestinians.”
The report notes that at a Washington DC Pride event in early June Medea Benjamin, cofounder of activist group Code Pink and a regular of anti-war protests, wore a pair of goofy, oversized sunglasses and a shirt in her signature pink with the phrase “you can’t pinkwash genocide.”
Other incidents CAM recorded showed the injection of anti-Israel sentiment into Pride events.
A musical group canceled a performance at an interfaith service in Brooklyn, claiming the hosting synagogue had a “public alignment with pro-Israel political positions.” In San Francisco before the yearly Trans March, a Palestine group said in its announcement of its participation, “Stop the war on Iran and the genocide of Palestine, stop the war on immigrants and attacks on trans people.”
CAM notes that this “queers for Palestine” sentiment is not new, pointing to a 2017 event wherein “organizers of the Chicago Dyke March infamously removed participants who were waving a Pride flag adorned with a Star of David on the grounds that the symbol ‘made people feel unsafe.’”
In February, the Israel Defense Forces shared with the New York Post documents it had recovered demonstrating that Hamas had tortured and executed members it suspected of homosexuality and other moral offenses in conflict with Islamist ideology.
Amit Benjamin, who is gay and a first sergeant major in the IDF, said during a visit to New York City for Pride month that “All the ‘queers for Gaza’ need to open their eyes. Hamas kills gays … kills lesbians … queers cannot exist in Gaza.”
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IAEA pulls inspectors from Iran as standoff over access drags on

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi at the agency’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria, June 23, 2025. REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl/File Photo
The UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday it had pulled its last remaining inspectors from Iran as a standoff over their return to the country’s nuclear facilities bombed by the United States and Israel deepens.
Israel launched its first military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites in a 12-day war with the Islamic Republic three weeks ago. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s inspectors have not been able to inspect Iran’s facilities since then, even though IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said that is his top priority.
Iran’s parliament has now passed a law to suspend cooperation with the IAEA until the safety of its nuclear facilities can be guaranteed. While the IAEA says Iran has not yet formally informed it of any suspension, it is unclear when the agency’s inspectors will be able to return to Iran.
“An IAEA team of inspectors today safely departed from Iran to return to the Agency headquarters in Vienna, after staying in Tehran throughout the recent military conflict,” the IAEA said on X.
Diplomats said the number of IAEA inspectors in Iran was reduced to a handful after the June 13 start of the war. Some have also expressed concern about the inspectors’ safety since the end of the conflict, given fierce criticism of the agency by Iranian officials and Iranian media.
Iran has accused the agency of effectively paving the way for the bombings by issuing a damning report on May 31 that led to a resolution by the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors declaring Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi has said he stands by the report. He has denied it provided diplomatic cover for military action.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday Iran remained committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“[Grossi] reiterated the crucial importance of the IAEA discussing with Iran modalities for resuming its indispensable monitoring and verification activities in Iran as soon as possible,” the IAEA said.
The US and Israeli military strikes either destroyed or badly damaged Iran’s three uranium enrichment sites. But it was less clear what has happened to much of Iran’s nine tonnes of enriched uranium, especially the more than 400 kg enriched to up to 60% purity, a short step from weapons grade.
That is enough, if enriched further, for nine nuclear weapons, according to an IAEA yardstick. Iran says its aims are entirely peaceful, but Western powers say there is no civil justification for enriching to such a high level, and the IAEA says no country has done so without developing the atom bomb.
As a party to the NPT, Iran must account for its enriched uranium, which normally is closely monitored by the IAEA, the body that enforces the NPT and verifies countries’ declarations. But the bombing of Iran’s facilities has now muddied the waters.
“We cannot afford that … the inspection regime is interrupted,” Grossi told a press conference in Vienna last week.
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