French Jews split on call to stop wearing skullcap

Leaders of France’s Jewish community have rejected an appeal to Jewish men to stop wearing the kippa or skullcap.

“We mustn’t give in to anything. We will continue to wear the kippa,” Haim Korsia, Grand Rabbi of France, said in a tweet.

Zvi Ammar, head of the Jewish consistory in Marseille, made the appeal after a 15-year-old Kurdish-Turkish lycee student tried to kill a religion teacher at the Hebrew Institute in Marseille with a machete.

The victim, Benjamin Amsellem was wearing a kippa when he was followed and attacked by the youth.

Roger Kukierman, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, said Mr Ammar’s appeal “smacks of defeatism, of giving up”.

National Jewish leaders were unanimous in their calls for defiance, whereas local leaders in Marseille favoured caution.

Be discreet

Ruben Ohana, the Grand Rabbi of Marseille and Alpes- Provence, suggested it was “better to be discreet in this period when crazies are circulating in public.  There are other ways to cover one’s head; for example, with a cap.”

There are 70,000 Jews, 52 synagogues and 16 Jewish schools in Marseille. Jews were the victims of knife attacks in the port city twice late last year, and most of the 72 “terrorist-related” offences there since November 13th have been directed against Jews.

"The kippa is a fundamental symbol of Judaism," Joel Mergui, president of the central consistory of French Judaism, told Le Monde. "There can be no question of Jews who want to wear it giving it up. It would deprive us of our Judaism. The terrorists must not be able to change our way of life."

Mr Mergui has launched a movement called “Don’t touch my kippa”. “It’s unthinkable that wearing a sign of Jewishness in a democracy should make one a target,” he said.“It’s a throwback to the darkest hours of our history.”

Ensure protection

French politicians were also torn between caution and outrage. Government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll would not take a position on the debate within the Jewish community but said “the government has a responsibility to ensure protection”.

Mr Amsellem’s lawyer said his client was certain the youth was trying to decapitate him. “He told me the machete blows were at his neck.”

The suspect, whose parents immigrated from Turkey five years ago, has been transferred to Paris, where an anti- terrorist judge yesterday charged him with attempted murder. He told investigators his only regret was not to have killed Mr Amsellem, who was slightly wounded.

The youth also spoke of his desire to move to Syria. Police found no evidence of radicalisation on his computer, but he had visited jihadist websites on his telephone.