According to the Interior Ministry’s figures, anti-Semitic acts accounted for 53% of anti-religious acts in France in 2025, even though the Jewish population in France represents less than 1% of the French population.

A 13-year-old Jewish teenager was beaten and threatened with a knife on Monday evening on Avenue de la Porte de la Chapelle in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, French media reported. When questioned by police, the teenager explained that “he was holding his kippah in his hand when five people attacked him to take his jacket and order him to empty his pockets,” the prosecutor’s office said, confirming a report.

His attackers allegedly beat him before threatening him with a knife to his throat and stealing his AirPods. According to the prosecutor’s office, anti-Semitic remarks were also made against him.

During the attack, the teenager was on a video call with someone who identified one of the attackers. The latter was quickly apprehended. The suspect is a young man born in June 2007, who has been taken into custody. The investigation into armed robbery and violence with a weapon, committed in a group and aggravated by discrimination, is now continuing in order to identify and arrest the other suspects.

“How can we find the words to explain to a 13-year-old child that he is being attacked because he is Jewish? Who will be able to restore his confidence in the future tomorrow? Hatred of Jews is never acceptable, but it is even less so when it targets children,” denounced Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, on social media.

The latest attack comes as figures of anti-Semitism in France in 2025 were published by the Interior Ministry showing   1,320 antisemit acts recorded or more than 3.5 anti-Semitic acts per day.

The figures on anti-Semitic acts were compiled in conjunction with the Jewish Community Protection Service (SPCJ).

The figures are based on verified incidents (complaints, police reports, referrals to the public prosecutor’s office and official reports). While they are a reliable indicator, they underestimate the reality of the situation, particularly due to under-reporting.

In 2025, anti-Semitism remains at a consistently high level,

Figures from the Ministry of the Interior in conjunction with the SPCJ

According to the ministry’s figures, anti-Semitic acts accounted for 53% of anti-religious acts in France in 2025, even though the Jewish population in France represents less than 1% of the French population.

Crif, the representative Council of Jewish institutions in France, said these figures reflect a “daily anti-Semitism” that permeates all areas of life and shapes the lives of French Jews.

30.5% of recorded anti-Semitic acts took place in the private sphere. Public roads remain a heavily impacted area, accounting for 17.8% of recorded acts, as do public places, accounting for 14.1% of recorded acts.

Jews are thus targeted at home, at work, in the street, and in the places that shape their daily lives (shops, public transport, parks, etc.).

Anti-Semitism also affects all regions. In 2025, incidents were recorded in 88 of France’s 101 departments and the geographical distribution of the phenomenon is not limited to large cities.

In 2025, attacks on individuals accounted for 67.4% of recorded incidents, compared to 65.2% in 2024. This increase shows how violent anti-Semitism is and how it primarily manifests itself in acts directed against individuals, rather than property.

In 2025, cases of physical violence reached a record high of 126 (compared to 106 in 2024). Their proportion also increased to 14.2% of all recorded anti-Semitic acts (compared to 10.4% of acts recorded in 2024). Attacks are on the rise and directly target people identified as Jewish, both adults and children.

Anti-Israel rhetoric has become a real driver of antisemitism since the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. By 2024, the recorded data already showed that the exploitation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was acting as a powerful catalyst for antisemitism, with several hundred incidents explicitly related to this issue.

In 2025, this rhetoric continued, with nearly a third of anti-Semitic acts containing explicit references to Palestine. Of the incidents for which the comments were sufficiently documented, 388 explicitly referred to this theme. Of these 388 acts, 45 also included praise for jihadism and 74 included praise for Nazism.

The figures also show that anti-Semitic acts in schools (elementary, middle, high schools, and higher education) account for 13.1% of the acts recorded.

This shows a rejuvenation of the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts, but also of the victims.