Victims lying on the pavement outside a Paris restaurant, Nov. 13, 2015. (Thibault Camus/AP Images)
(JTA) — Dozens of people were killed in a series of almost simultaneous terror attacks that rocked Paris Friday night.
French President Francois Hollande, in a televised address late Friday, said the “unprecedented” attacks affected at least three locations, and were ongoing. He declared a state of emergency throughout France, and closed the country’s borders.
“There are dozens who were killed,” he said. “There are many wounded. It is a horror.”
Roger Cukierman, the president of the CRIF, the umbrella group of Jewish institutions in France, told JTA Friday that he had not heard of any Jewish targets, but that the situation remained fluid. “
The security team of the Jewish community is on high alert,” he said.
One of the most deadly attacks involved at least one shooter who fired at patrons of the Le Bataclan concert venue in Paris’ central 11th arrondissement, or district. At least 15 people died there, a municipality official told the French newspaper Le Parisien. French security personnel stormed the building, believing hostages may be held there.
Another three firing attacks occurred in the northern 10th arrondissement, according to Le Figaro newspaper.
Hollande was at the Stade de France stadium north of central Paris when at least one bomb exploded there during a soccer match between French and German teams, according to press reports. Hollande was evacuated to safety.
Police officers securing the Stade de France stadium during the soccer match between France and Germany in Saint Denis, outside Paris, Nov. 13, 2015. (Michel Euler/AP Images)
The French president said that he had ordered a full mobilization of security forces to neutralize the threat and secure all affected neighborhoods.
Speaking from the White House Friday night, U.S President Barack Obama said he was prepared to provide any assistance the French government and people need in the wake the deadly attacks.
“This is an attack not just on Paris,” he said. “It’s an attack not just on the people of France, but this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values that we share.”
The attacks come some 10 months after four people were killed in hostage siege on a Paris kosher supermarket on January 9. That deadly attack, perpetrated by an Islamist extremist, came just days after a pair of Islamist terrorists shot to death 12 people at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. A third terrorist attack in January killed a police office in a Paris suburb.
Security concerns has led many French Jews to immigrate to Israel in recent years. In 2014, for the first time ever, more Jews moved to Israel from France than from any other country. Nearly 7,000 French immigrants arrived in Israel in 2014, double the 3,400 who came in 2013. So far in 2015, some 6,250 French Jews have left for Israel.
Sacha Reingewirtz, the president of France’s powerful Jewish student union, UEJF, was at a Shabbat dinner with some 200 Jewish student leaders at the group’s annual convention, when news of the attacks broke.
“The room started to buzz, and word passed on very quickly” he said, when reached by phone late Friday.
People leaving the Stade de France stadium after the soccer match between France and Germany in Saint Denis, outside Paris, Nov. 13, 2015 (Michel Euler/AP Images)
The UEJF is holding its convention this weekend Strasbourg, about 300 miles east of Paris. But he said that about half of the participants were from Paris, and the atmosphere was “very tense,” as conference-goers were attempting to reach friends and relatives in the French capital.
Reingewirtz said that UEJF is monitoring the situation, and would take additional security measures if needed.
CRIF’s Cukierman noted that he has been in touch with his deputies, and the group may reconsider its participation in a rally, planned for Sunday, to protest the visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is expected to arrive in France on Monday.
