The assailant of Orléans Chief Rabbi Arié Engelberg was arrested on Saturday night, the victim told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The attacker was a minor, according to a social media statement by French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on X/Twitter that Engelberg had been violently attacked on Saturday when leaving a synagogue with his nine-year-old son.
Engelberg told BFMTV that the suspect approached him and asked him if he was Jewish. Footage published on social media by French officials, including European Parliament member Matthieu Valet, showed Engelberg being punched and kicked repeatedly. France Bleu, which obtained the original footage from a witness, reported that the rabbi had also been bitten on the shoulder.
A bystander intervened in the attack, after which the attacker instead kicked the rabbi’s hat, according to BFMTV.Bravo à La BAC d’Orléans – que Mélenchon rêve de dissoudre – pour l’interpellation rapide du suspect de l’agression antisémite.Devant son fils de 9 ans, le Rabbin a été insulté, frappé et mordu par un suspect de 16 ans qui selon Le Parisien, aurait déjà un beau palmarès.À… pic.twitter.com/R4RhePAZ4f
— Matthieu Valet (@mvalet_officiel) March 23, 2025
Engelberg is recovering physically after the attack but is shocked, Bayrou related on Sunday.
Denouncement of the attack
The Union of Jewish Students of France organized a rally in Paris on Sunday to show support for Engelberg and to denounce the high levels of antisemitism in the country.
“In the face of antisemitism, let’s be numerous and visible!” the UEJF wrote on Instagram.
Orléans Mayor Serge Grouard and Retailleau attributed antisemitic motives to the attack. In a Sunday statement, Grouard was more subtle, describing how the rhetoric of “certain political parties and leaders” and “demonstrations under the pretext of solidarity” had contributed to the rise in antisemitic incidents.
Retailleau, however, specified on X that the Saturday attack was connected to the “pervasive antisemitism that is growing both in the rhetoric of Islamists around the world and in far-left movements and parties that, in France, are stirring up hatred.”
The French far Left and far Right attacked one another over the Orléans incident, blaming one another for rising antisemitism.
National Rally parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen blamed La France Insoumise, a left-wing political party, for putting a target on the back of Jewish citizens and called for the government to take a stand against “antisemitism fueled by the far Left.”
LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard retorted on X that Le Pen led a party founded by Nazi collaborators, and its candidates included those convicted for racist or antisemitic actions.
Mathilda Heller contributed to this report.