The current phenomenon that began in Berlin, the former capital of the Third Reich, has now spread to Paris, with at least 78 blue Magen Dovid symbols recently sprayed onto the walls of Jewish stores and homes.

Additionally, anti-Semitic graffiti was discovered in two suburbs of Paris over the weekend.

France, which is home to the largest Jewish community in Europe along with the largest Muslim community, has seen a frightening sharp surge of anti-Semitism in recent weeks, with 819 incidents since October 7, almost double the number of incidents in the entire year of 2022.

There are reports of French Jews removing their mezuzahs from their doors due to fear of being targeted. On October 20, the door of an elderly Jewish couple in Paris that boasted a mezuzah [the only one in the building] was burned down. Other Jewish residents found their mezuzahs torn off their doorposts.

A Jewish woman, the owner of one of the houses whose wall was marked with a Magen Dovid, was interviewed [with her face covered] by French TV. “This reminds me of the days of Hitler,” she said. “The police ordered me to remove my name from the door. They told me to be careful and they gave me a phone number to call in case of an incident and they said they would answer me immediately.”

Another Jewish woman named Alice, who was also interviewed, said that she’s very frightened. “Today, on October 23, I’m not ashamed to say this – I’m afraid. I’m afraid because I’m Jewish. The first thing I said to my children the day after October 7 was: ‘Take off your Magen Dovd pendants.’ It was an automatic reaction.'”

“We say to each other in the community ‘Be careful.’ We repeat this phrase all day – we don’t know exactly how to be careful but we repeat it over and over. I feel like I’m once again experiencing dark events of our history, which led to horrors that we all know about or at least we’re all supposed to know about.”

“When I hear that the French Ministry of the Interior is maintaining increased security in Jewish institutions, I understand that there are real and tangible threats here.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)