French Jews have faced an explosion in the number of antisemitic incidents since the October 7 massacre in Israel, but the ten-year commemoration of the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket on January 9 2015 brought home how serious the threat is.
Security for the memorial for the Charlie Hebdo magazine shooting on January 7 was tight, but it was of a different order of magnitude for the Hyper Cacher memorial. Even Jewish and neighbourhood residents were prevented by police from entering the area. “Only victims, officials or journalists with special authorisation can attend” said police officers.
“Look up, on rooftops. You can see the snipers, can’t you,” said one member of the security forces. “The public was able to approach the Charlie Hebdo memorial, but not this one. There have been many terror alerts due to the war in the Middle East.”
Armed men were positioned on buildings on both sides of Porte de Vincennes avenue, where the minimarket is located. French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister François Bayrou both attended the memorial, which made the event even more sensitive.
Another memorial was held two days later outside the minimarket, organised by the CRIF Jewish umbrella group. Candles were lit in memory of the four men killed in 2015, Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham and François-Michel Saada. Islamic State affiliated terrorist Amedy Coulibaly had taken shoppers and employees hostage, threatening to blow up the store and kill everyone until police stormed the shop and killed him. The previous day he had shot dead police officer Clarissa Jean Philippe in Montrouge, not far from a Jewish school, which many believe may have been his initial target.
Coulibaly was an accomplice of brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who killed twelve people in the Charlie Hebdo newspaper two days earlier. The satirical newspaper had been - and still is - under threat for reprinting the danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Candles were lit in honour of all terror victims in the memorial service, including those killed by Hamas on October 7 and those taken hostage.
“I remember that day. Police told us to hide in a room opposite the minimarket,” said Françoise, who lives across the street from Hyper Cacher. “The windows shook so hard when security forces stormed the store. It took months to return and shop there.”
“My father lived here, he was a World War II veteran and he called me, saying that he wanted the terrorists to take him instead of the hostages,” 62-year-old Elise local resident told the JC. “My father said his life was behind him and he wanted to save others. Of course, police wouldn’t let him. He was Jewish and had to wear the yellow star during the war before joining the liberation forces. He was so young.”
The memorial focused on Jewish youth organisations. Teenagers took off their coats to show their uniforms, take pictures and then light a candle for the victims.
“It was important to come today and show who we are, because this country is our home,” said Philippe from the Eclaireurs and Eclaireuses Israélites de France, one of the main youth groups, created during World War II. “I personally don’t feel threatened in my daily life but I know others do - those who can be identified as Jewish due to their name, for example.”
“Antisemitism is relentless. Did you see that in this very neighbourhood new antisemitic graffiti has been drawn on several buildings?” asked Elise. A 48-year-old man was detained for drawing Stars of David on 33 walls across the neighbourhood before the national memorials for the January 2015 victims. He will be tried next month.
Antisemitic hate messages calling for Jews to be killed were sprayed during Chanukah in Rouen, in northern France, on the wall of a synagogue, the home of a rabbi and a lawyer’s office. In May, a knife-wielding man set fire to a synagogue in central Rouen.
According to CRIF, there were 1,676 antisemitic incidents in 2023, four times more than the previous year, and Aurore Bergé, the minister charged with tackling antisemitism, said that as many antisemitic acts were carried out in 2024 as in 2023. The government says it will bring more focus into antisemitic acts carried out in universities.
