According to the victim’s father, his 14-year-old son was leaving a synagogue on Friday in Lyon (Rhône) when he was “insulted with anti-Semitic remarks” and then struck by a man in his twenties.

An investigation has been opened for “aggravated violence against a minor on the grounds of religious affiliation” by the Lyon public prosecutor after the assault of a Jewish teenager outside a synagogue in Lyon.

According to the complaint filed by the 14-year-old boy’s father, the teenager was leaving the synagogue on Friday when he was “insulted with anti-Semitic remarks” by a man in his twenties and then beaten. The teenager was given two days of temporary total disability.

“Anti-Semitism is a poison that has no place in our republic,” declared Fabienne Buccio, Prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, affirming that “the State services are fighting it with determination.”

Crif, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France deplored a “wave of anti-Semitic acts of unprecedented severity” in Lyon and its region, expressing concern about a “poisoned atmosphere.”

Some 646 anti-Semitic acts were recorded in France from January to June 2025, 27.5% less than in the same period in 2024 but significantly more than in 2023, before the unprecedented attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

The French government is waging an “unambiguous fight” against anti-Semitism, which has reached “intolerable” levels, said Aurore Bergé, the minister in charge of combating discrimination, while the U.S. ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, has accuses France of not being sufficiently committed in this area.