After the fire in May, the Rouen synagogue victim of anti-Semitic tags: an investigation opened

An investigation was opened for damage and incitement to hatred after the discovery of anti-Semitic tags around the Rouen synagogue, we learned on Tuesday from the prosecution. More precisely “for damage by inscription, sign or drawing” and “public provocation to hatred or violence because of origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion”, explained Sébastien Gallois, prosecutor of the Republic of Rouen.

Damages committed between the end of December 2024 and the beginning of January 2025 were discovered while stars of David and “Jewish” inscriptions were noted, this Monday, on buildings in Saint-Mandé and Vincennes (Val-de- Marne), near the Hyper Cacher which was attacked in 2015 after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.

“I wanted to make this public, because enough is enough!” », declared, this Tuesday morning, Natacha Ben Haïm, president of the Israelite Cult Association of Rouen (Acir) to an AFP correspondent, confirming information from radio Ici Normandie.

“The battle against this anti-Semitic Islamism continues”

Four anti-Semitic tags on the synagogue or near the rabbi’s residence have been discovered since December 29.

Natacha Ben Haïm also reported having filed a complaint in December due to various threats against the synagogue which is still closed.

Last May, a 24-year-old man of Algerian nationality and in an irregular situation set fire to the Rouen synagogue, located in the city center. The man threatened a police officer with a knife, who shot and killed the attacker.

The announcement of the discovery of these tags sparked numerous reactions on Tuesday.

“Discovering these tags in Rouen, it is a double symbol, a symbol because obviously they fall on the anniversary of the Hyper Cacher attack (which left four dead on January 9, 2015 at the Porte de Vincennes in Paris, Editor’s note) and a symbol because they are retouching the Rouen synagogue, which was the subject of an arson attack a few months ago,” declared the president of Crif Yonathan Arfi on RTL.

“Today we commemorate the 10 years of Hyper Cacher and Charlie Hebdo, but basically, the sequence has never closed: it is difficult to commemorate something which is still ongoing, since the battle against this anti-Semitic Islamism continues,” reacted Arfi.

“The police are on some leads”

“I condemn with the greatest firmness these anti-Semitic tags which have no place in Rouen, nor anywhere in our Republic. I hope that their cowardly perpetrators will be quickly identified and punished by the courts,” declared the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol on X.

Tuesday morning on RTL, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau mentioned the stars of David and the “Jewish” inscriptions tagged very close to the Hyper Cacher, as well as the tags of Rouen.

About these different cases, we know “little else at the moment since they are very recent, they date from a few hours ago. But already, I can tell you that the police are on some leads and I hope that justice will prove intractable,” replied Retailleau.