Attacks and responses

Crown Heights Info furnishes new details about the attack in Lyon this past weekend including that one of the victims is scheduled to be married this week.

Three Chabad Rabbinical students were brutally attacked in Lyon, France on Shabbat afternoon, June 3rd, by a large group of Muslims. The victims were returning home from a Shabbat meal with friends, and were passing through a predominantly Muslim neighborhood when they were verbally and physically assaulted.

Mrs. Azulai, a mother of one of the victims, spoke to Lubavitch.com. “At first there were only three thugs who attacked my son and his friends, screaming ‘Dirty Jew’ and spitting at them. Soon they recruited a group of their friends—another 10-- who were waving hammers, iron bars and a knife, and they all began beating the boys up.”
http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=44439

The response to the attack was as follows:

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Monday condemned a weekend assault on three Jewish youths, as Jewish organisations warned of an increase in anti-Semitic attacks in France.
http://www.heralddeparis.com/france-french-pm-ayrault-condemns-unbearable-attack-on-jewish-youths-near-lyon/178661

The following is an EJPress report from April 2011 about a victim of another attack in France.
As he was walking home from the synagogue late Thursday night, the two aggressors, in their twenties, asked their victim’s name.
After hearing his response, the two told him: "you don’t look to be named Antoine, you look Jewish, you are a Jew."
...A police source quoted by Agence France Presse said "the tone heightened between the three youths. There was an exchange of blows and two youths of North African origin took out a gun ball and possibly a truncheon."
...In a statement, the mayor of Villeurbanne “strongly” condemned "this intolerable act."
http://www.ejpress.org/article/50284

The following are comments made by Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, after the attack on a Jewish school in Toulose.

"Whoever did this is looking to target the Jewish community at its weakest point, its youth, in the hopes of spreading fear throughout the community," Mr Kantor said.
"They will not succeed, the Jews of Europe in general and the Jews of France in particular have a long history of standing firm against hatred and violence," he added.
"I know as a community French Jewry will send a message of strength and resilience in the face of those who wish to terrorise them."
He continued: "The greatest defence against race-based murder is not by creating higher walls and more effective security systems, but by teaching and imparting tolerance in the classrooms."
Read full article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9152992/Toulouse-shooting-Israeli-PM-condemns-despicable-murder-of-Jews.html

Wow! The condemnations and responses really seem to be working in minimizing attacks in France.