Chmouel Lubecki, Rouen's rabbi, was constantly reassuring and informing a "distraught" Jewish community on Friday, May 17, as worried worshippers messaged him on his cell phone or via a WhatsApp loop after a man attempted to set fire to the synagogue. The religious leader, who lives directly opposite the synagogue, was not present at the time of the arson attack. "But my wife was," he said, still overcome with emotion. "She was awake and saw the smoke coming out of the synagogue, but not the assailant."

A massive rectangle of grey concrete, built in 1950, surrounded by medieval buildings, the synagogue stands on Rue des Bons-Enfants, barely a hundred meters from the famous Place du Vieux-Marché, in the heart of the historic city center of Normandy's capital. In the early hours of the morning, at around 6:45 am, an undocumented Algerian national set fire to the interior of the building by throwing an incendiary device. Armed with a knife and an iron bar, he then attempted to attack the police before being shot dead.

The firefighters were able to quickly halt the advance of the fire and no trace of the damage was visible on the outside walls of the place of worship. "But the damage is considerable," said Lubecki. "Fortunately, the Torah books and scrolls were untouched, but the Bimah, the platform where the Torah is read, is partially burnt."

Since the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, security has been stepped up around French synagogues, as the French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin emphasized during a visit to the site on Friday afternoon. According to Rabbi Lubecki, apart from some spitting on the synagogue door, "no particular alert" in recent months would have made it possible to predict such an act.

Rouen, a city of 110,000 inhabitants, is home to some 200 Jewish families, making up just over a thousand people. On Friday, several hundred people gathered in support of the Jewish community in front of Rouen City Hall at 6 pm, in response to a call from the Socialist mayor, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. "The foul beast has struck. Attacking a synagogue means attacking Jews, and therefore attacking all of us, the Republic," thundered the mayor, surrounded by members of his local left-wing majority and right-wing opposition.

Kristell, a young woman in her forties who preferred to remain anonymous, said she had come "in solidarity with the Jewish community." "After the murder of Father Hamel [a Catholic priest of an Islamist terrorist attack in 2016 in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a suburb of Rouen], yet another religious symbol is being targeted in the region," she sighed. Marco, a Jewish septuagenarian, who didn't want to give his surname either, was also keen to take part in the demonstration, but was not optimistic: "Once again, we'll say it's exceptional. Once again, we'll let it slide."

You have 61.35% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.