September 28, 2012

(JTA) — French police arrested four men last week on suspicion that they hurled empty bottles at Jews near a synagogue in Cannes on the eve of Rosh Hashanah.

On Sept. 17 the suspects stood outside a Cannes synagogue, shouted anti-Semitic slogans, and threw bottles at the building and passersby, according to the SPCJ, the security department of the French Jewish community., 

No one was injured in the attack. 

The men were “thoroughly intoxicated,” SPCJ said in an announcement about the incident in Cannes, a city in the south of France. The suspects were released shortly after their arrest. SPCJ filed complaints against the four men and the police are continuing their investigation into the incident.

Dr. Richard Prasquier, president of CRIF, the umbrella organization representing French Jewish communities, said that Yom Kippur passed “peacefully” and without major incidents.

“Not everything was perfect,” he said. “ An attack was registered in Marseille by a violent driver. Notwithstanding, the majority of synagogue services were frequented by many people and conducted without incident.”

In a statement released after Yom Kippur, Prasquier expressed his gratitude to the French authorities as well as to SPCJ.

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