Wiesenthal Centre Visits Paris Antisemitic Assault Victim in Post-Coma Hospital Ward

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE - EUROPE
66 rue Laugier - 75017 Paris
Tel. +33-147237637 - Fax: +33-147208401
e-mail: csweurope@gmail.com

Wiesenthal Centre Visits Paris Antisemitic Assault Victim in Post-Coma Hospital Ward

Other Violent Attacks Against Jewish Youth May Have Gone Unreported

Together with the President of the CRIF (Representative Council of French Jews), Dr Richard Prasquier, and its Director Haim Musicant, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director forInternational Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, yesterday visited the victim of last Saturday's antisemitic assaultin Paris.

Besides the seventeen-year old Rudi, were also present his parents Debora and Philippe H., and their two younger daughters.

Thankfully now out of coma, Rudi had been beaten with metal bars by five or more men of African origin on his way home. His life was saved by a passerby who called the police.There were also several witnesses who had taken photographs from neighbouring windows.

Among those detained for interrogation, several had movies on their mobile phones taken while they were attacking other young Jews.

Rudi was assaulted at 7 pm, but, twice earlier that day, teenage Jews were beaten on the same street. One had been cut with a machete. These assaults had not been reported to thepolice for fear of retribution.

French media are drawing an equivalence between the attacks of last week and another incident in December 2007, when a number of young Jews were arrested, during Chanukkah, forreportedly beating young Blacks and North Africans.

A prosecutor has described the attack on Rudi as a matter of inter-community revenge, calling it "an act of incidental antisemitism."

Rudi had planned to spend the summer in Israel, which now depends upon his full recovery. The Wiesenthal Centre-Europe has offered to assist him when he eventually visitsJerusalem.

Meanwhile, his younger sister yesterday received an anonymous SMS warning: "If you come to the public park (where the attack occurred) this Saturday, a large group of Blacks andNorth Africans will be waiting for you." The H. family's children now refuse to take the metro alone and the father has made arrangements to take them to and from school.

Five youths, aged 14 to 17 held for questioning as witnesses, were yesterday released without charge, while the search continues for the perpetrators.

The Centre has called for their rapid arrest and maximum legal punishment as a public example. The Centre also emphasized that there be a stronger police presence in areas whereJews are at risk.

Ironically, yesterday afternoon, a plaque in the nearby 10th district of Paris was defaced beyond repair. The plaque was to the memory of the French Jewish children deported toAuschwitz from that site.

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.