French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the “poison of anti-Semitism” following a shocking attack on the chief rabbi of the central city of Orleans, reports FRANCE 24.
French authorities are treating the incident as an anti-Semitic hate crime.
Rabbi Arié Engelberg was assaulted Saturday while walking in the city centre with his young son. Local media reported that the suspect hurled anti-Semitic insults at the rabbi before physically attacking him.
“The attack on Rabbi Arié Engelberg in Orléans shocks us all. 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,” Macron wrote in a post on X.
The suspect was arrested shortly after the assault and transferred to a psychiatric facility, interior minister Gérald Darmanin confirmed. “I condemn with the greatest firmness the anti-Semitic attack of the Chief Rabbi of Orléans,” he posted on X. “He has all my support. The suspect was arrested and placed in a psychiatric facility.”
Darmanin later added: “France cannot allow itself to become a stage for foreign tensions that fuel violence and antisemitism.”
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.