Anti-Israel protesters march in Germany, March 26, 2025. Photo: Sebastian Willnow/dpa via Reuters Connect

Recent assaults in France and Germany highlight the ongoing threat of antisemitism facing Jewish communities throughout Europe.

On Saturday, a 67-year-old man wearing Orthodox Jewish clothing was physically attacked in Yerres, a suburb south of Paris.

While walking home from the mikveh, a Jewish ritual bath, the victim was brutally assaulted by an unknown man shouting antisemitic slurs, including, “Dirty Jew, I’m going to kill you.”

According to local media reports, the victim, identified as Gilles Cohen, was violently beaten as the assailant attempted to search his pockets for money and synagogue keys.

Grégoire Dulin, the local public prosecutor, confirmed the victim was released from the hospital and “has been given a 15-day total work incapacity order.”

Shortly after the attack, Cohen filed a police complaint, though authorities have yet to make any arrests.

“An investigation is underway on charges of attempted violent robbery resulting in total incapacity to work of more than eight days, committed on religious grounds, and for death threats on religious grounds,” Dulin told AFP.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “shocking antisemitic attack,” wishing the victim a “swift and full recovery” while calling on French authorities to ensure justice and the safety of the Jewish community.

“Cohen was brutally assaulted, struck in the face several times, and called a ‘dirty Jew.’ This is an extremely serious act that reflects the alarming rise of antisemitism in France,” the statement read.

We strongly condemn the shocking antisemitic attack that took place on Saturday morning in Yerres (near Paris), where Mr. Gilles Cohen was brutally assaulted, struck in the face several times, and called a “dirty Jew”.

This is an extremely serious act that reflects the alarming… https://t.co/JacGJaV2zd

— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) September 28, 2025

Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) — the main representative body of French Jews — also condemned the attack, describing it as the latest in a string of antisemitic assaults on rabbis in Orléans, Deauville, Neuilly, and Levallois in recent months.

“How long will this repeated hatred be tolerated?” Arfi wrote in a post on X.

“No one will uproot the Jews from France. But it is high time to uproot the antisemitism that is festering in society, using a conflict [1,800 miles] away as a pretext,” he continued, referring to the war in Gaza.

Agression antisémite à Yerres après celles de rabbins à Orléans, Deauville, Neuilly, Levallois ces derniers mois… Jusqu’à quand va-t-tolérer cette haine à répétition ?

Personne ne déracinera les Juifs de France. Mais il est plus que temps de déraciner l’antisémitisme qui…

— Yonathan Arfi (@Yonathan_Arfi) September 28, 2025

Since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, France has seen a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.

In an increasingly hostile climate, the local Jewish community has faced both violent assaults and attacks on schools and synagogues.

According to France’s Interior Ministry, more than 640 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the first six months of 2025 — a 27.5 prcent decrease from the same period in 2024 but a 112.5 percent increase compared with the first half of 2023.

In a separate incident in Germany, a 24-year-old Jewish man was brutally assaulted in the central city of Erfurt when another man saw he was wearing a Star of David necklace.

On Friday, the victim was physically attacked on a tram after an unknown individual spotted his necklace, attempting to drag him off, kicking him repeatedly, and threatening him before fleeing the scene.

Local police have launched an investigation and are reviewing tram footage, but no suspects have been arrested yet.

A police spokesperson told German newspaper Bild that the incident is being treated as a “politically motivated crime.”

Like several other countries, particularly in Europe, Germany has also seen a surge in antisemitic attacks targeting the local Jewish community.

According to a police report, 1,047 antisemitic crimes were recorded nationwide between January and March this year, including 27 violent assaults and 422 cases of incitement to hatred.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams attends an “October 7: One Year Later” commemoration to mark the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in Israel at the Summer Stage in Central Park on October 7, 2024, in New York City. Photo: Ron Adar/ SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

In a stunning turn of events just over a month before Election Day, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced on Sunday that he was withdrawing from his reelection bid, reshaping the dynamics of a race that has drawn international attention while leaving many Jewish voters scrambling for an alternative candidate.

Adams — whose term in office has been marked by legal drama, declining public support, and mounting political pressure — cited fundraising challenges, media scrutiny, and weakening momentum as key reasons for his exit. Though Adams’s name will remain on the ballot since his announcement came after the deadline for printing them, his decision to drop out removes an active campaign that had drawn critical support from center-left and moderate constituencies.

With Adams suspending his candidacy, the mayoral contest is now largely a showdown between Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, a far-left democratic socialist with an extensive history of anti-Israel rhetoric, and the independent candidacy of scandal-plagued former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa is also still in the race, but recent polling and New York City’s overwhelmingly Democratic electorate indicate a likely third-place finish.

The exit of Adams compresses the field and raises the stakes for how his base, particularly moderate Democrats in combination with business-friendly and pro-Israel voters, may realign.

Mamdani, the 33‑year‑old member of the New York State Assembly, defeated Cuomo and other candidates in a lopsided first‑round win in the city’s Democratic primary for mayor, notching approximately 43.5 percent of first‑choice votes compared to Cuomo’s 36.4 percent.

Some observers believe Adams’s withdrawal could help consolidate anti-Mamdani votes behind Cuomo. However, many others suggest that Mamdani has gained too much momentum to be thwarted by last-ditch efforts before the November election.

Earlier this month, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Mamdani taking 45 percent in a four-way matchup, well ahead of Cuomo at 23 percent, Sliwa at 15 percent, and Adams at just 12 percent. If Adams were to exit the race, according to the data, Mamdani’s margin would narrow, with 46 percent support compared to Cuomo’s 30 percent. Sliwa would hold 17 percent of the electorate.

The results came days after another poll showed similar results.

In immediate reactions to Adams’s decision to drop out, Mamdani downplayed the significance to his campaign’s status. “It’s a race between us and the failed politics of the past,” he said, reiterating his calls to move beyond entrenched donor power.

Some prominent voices, such as billionaire hedge fund investor Bill Ackman, called on Sliwa to follow Adams’s lead and drop out to consolidate as much support against Mamdani as possible. However, Sliwa does not seem keen on the idea. “Curtis Sliwa is the only candidate who can defeat Mamdani,” the Republican nominee’s campaign said in a statement on Sunday.

Adams’s withdrawal also removes a figure long seen as reliably supportive of pro-Israel positions and Jewish communal priorities. During his tenure, the mayor repeatedly vowed to defend the city’s Jewish community and delivered a forceful condemnation of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. His departure leaves advocacy groups, synagogues, and institutions reconsidering their strategies, particularly around municipal support for security, interfaith partnerships, and cultural funding.

The recent Quinnipiac poll underscored Adams’s strong standing among certain demographics, particularly Jewish voters, who make up a crucial bloc in several boroughs. Among Jewish voters, Adams received 42 percent support, while Mamdani and Cuomo were tied at 21 percent each. Moreover, 75 percent of Jewish voters view Mamdani unfavorably, according to the poll, highlighting a key vulnerability for the progressive candidate.

A Siena College poll from August similarly found that Mamdani has been remarkably unpopular with Jewish New Yorkers. According to the results, a staggering 75 percent held an unfavorable opinion of the Queens Democrat and just 15 percent viewed him favorably. His unfavorable rating among Jewish voters was more than 38 points higher than his standing with the general electorate, where 37 percent viewed him negatively compared to 28 percent favorably.

A little-known politician before this year’s primary campaign, Mamdani is an outspoken supporter of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward its eventual elimination. Mamdani also defended the phrase “globalize the intifada” — which references previous periods of sustained Palestinian terrorism against Jews and Israelis and has been widely interpreted as a call to expand political violence — by invoking the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during World War II. In response, the US Holocaust Memorial Museum repudiated the mayoral candidate, calling his comments “outrageous and especially offensive to [Holocaust] survivors.”

Mamdani sparked outrage again on Sunday when he seemingly sidestepped a direct question on whether Hamas is a terrorist organization, instead condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for an end to the war in Gaza.

Illustrative: Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at Deering Meadow on the grounds of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, US, on April 25, 2024. Photo: Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect

Northwestern University has paused course enrollment for an unspecified number of students who refused to participate in anti-discrimination seminars which emphasized antisemitism prevention.

According to a statement the university shared with The Algemeiner, the students had advanced notice that their declining to complete the course, as well as other “mandatory student trainings,” in a manner consistent with “the policy on Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct,” would precipitate “action, including a registration hold.”

It added, “Students are not required to agree with the training modules but must attest that they will abide by the Student Code of Conduct … Students have received regular reminders of this requirement over the last several months.” Northwestern also said that it is “committed to maintaining education, work, and living environments in which people are treated with dignity and respect.”

Protesting the seminar appears to have followed a premeditated plan involving older adults, including alumni and professors. Following the acts of defiance, the administration received a letter signed by over 200 anti-Israel activists which fired a volley of political attacks against the antisemitism training — lamenting that it does not delegitimize Zionism and the struggle for Jewish self-determination in Israel.

“As a group of students and graduate workers who stand united against racist, antisemitic, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian discrimination, we cannot abide by these trainings which reinforce, rather than reduce, the proliferation of discriminatory bias in our communities,” the letter said. “Furthermore, the severe consequences imposed for disagreement with this morally and intellectually objectionable content presents an extremely dangerous and unethical threat to the academic freedom of our scholarly community that may itself give rise to illegal discrimination.”

Registration holds pose grave risks to the students on which they are imposed, including academic backsliding, restricted access to important documents, and the potential squandering of tens of thousands of dollars in tuition fees. It is not clear how long the students Northwestern punished plan to continue their demonstration. As of Monday, the anti-Israel letter to the administration is being circulated as a petition, although it seems unlikely to change the university’s policy regarding the seminar.

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Northwestern University’s handling of antisemitism after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel is being investigated by the federal government, which recently impounded $790 million worth of taxpayer funds previously appropriated to it, for potential civil rights violations. The issue is also being closely watched by concerned Jewish parents and advocacy groups. Withdrawing the university’s support for the seminar could prompt catastrophic legal and political consequences.

Earlier this year, after months of opprobrium, Northwestern University issued a report on its enactment of a checklist of policies it said has meaningfully addressed campus antisemitism.

“The university administration took this criticism to heart and spent much of last summer revising our rules and policies to make our university safe for all of our students, regardless of their religion, race, national origin, sexual orientation, or political viewpoint,” the university said. “Among the updated policies is our Demonstration Policy, which includes new requirements and guidance on how, when, and where members of the community may protest or otherwise engage in expressive activity.”

Northwestern added that it adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, a reference tool which aids officials in determining what constitutes antisemitism, and begun holding “mandatory antisemitism training” sessions which “all students, faculty, and staff” must attend.

Parents of students attending Northwestern University rejected the report as an attempt to manufacture positive headlines and mislead the public, most of all the Jewish community.

“The problems at Northwestern are deep. Deep and institutional,” Lisa Fields, founder of Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern (CAAN), told The Algemeiner during an interview in May.

Earlier this month, Michael Schill resigned as president of Northwestern, just days before the start of fall semester.

The embattled former executive testified last May before the US House Committee on Education and Workforce, where he faced a firing line of conservative lawmakers, such as Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Burgess Owens (R-UT), who placed him in their crosshairs after identifying him as one of the dozens of college presidents who allegedly did far too little to combat the nationwide surge in campus antisemitism following Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities.

Schill’s gravest transgression, lawmakers charged, was the Deering Meadow Agreement, reached after a pro-Hamas group commandeered a section of campus and established what they called the “Northwestern Liberated Zone” on April 25, 2024. For five days, over 1,000 students, professors, and non-Northwestern-affiliated persons fulminated against the world’s lone Jewish state, trafficked antisemitic tropes, and intimidated Jewish students.

By the morning of April 29, Schill and the group finalized the infamous deal — a first of its kind accord which became a model for 42 other schools who emulated it. It committed Northwestern University to establishing a scholarship for Palestinian undergraduates, contacting potential employers of students who caused recent campus disruptions to insist on their being hired, hiring two Palestinian professors, and creating a segregated dormitory hall to be occupied exclusively by Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Muslim students. The university — after days of hearing the activists shout phrases such as “Kill the Jews!” — also agreed to form a new investment committee in which anti-Zionist students and faculty wield an outsized voice.

Fields told The Algemeiner that Schill’s resignation should be the first of a series of major changes at the university.

“As both a parent and CAAN’s national chair, I know the fear and frustration Jewish families have felt watching Northwestern fail to protect its students,” Fields said. “President Schill’s resignation is a necessary first step, but it cannot be the last. The board’s catastrophic governance shows how far Northwestern has drifted. Chair Barris should step aside, and the board must be restructured. Only sustained federal oversight, dedicated civil rights enforcement, structural reform, and a president with integrity and vision will restore accountability and integrity at Northwestern.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.