Knife attack on a Jewish teacher in the street

A teacher at a Jewish school in Marseille is attacked with a knife in the street, in broad daylight, by assailants who identify him by his kippa. He is wounded but escapes his attackers.

The attack occurs a few days after the Paris attacks and in a city where incidents targeting people recognizable as Jewish have multiplied. It provokes a controversy within the community itself: the president of the local consistoire invites men to refrain temporarily from wearing the kippa so as not to expose themselves, advice immediately rejected by other leaders on the grounds that it would amount to ceding the street. Marseille is home to one of the oldest and largest Jewish communities in France.