A Paris graphics company advertised for a well-organized jobseeker, "if possible, not Jewish." Photo: Twitter

SOS Racisme, the French anti-racist organization, has filed a legal complaint against a Paris design company for a job advert specifying that candidates for an open position should be rigorous, well organized, highly motivated but “if possible not Jewish.”

The row started when a Parisian jobseeker noticed the advert placed by graphic design company, NSL Studio, on the jobs site graphic-jobs.com, The Guardian reported. The advert for a permanent graphic designer specified in its first two lines that the candidate must be rigorous, motivated and keen to develop in an “ultra-dynamic” environment.

The offending job ad specifying a preference for candidates who are not Jewish

The third line specified: “If possible, not Jewish.” Shocked, the jobseeker took a screengrab and posted it on Facebook.The French magazine Les Inrocks swiftly picked up the story. It quoted an unnamed person at NSL Studio saying that the ad wasn’t “at all discriminatory” and that the company did not want to employ anyone restricted by “religious or cultural” worries.

Soon after, NSL Studio tweeted that it had been hacked and would never have posted such a “discriminatory” advert.

The incident is another sign that antisemitism retains a worrying hold over large sections of the French population at a time of heightened security around Jewish institutions, following last month’s terror outrages in Paris that included an attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.