Antisemitic slogans daubed at the entrance to Paris kosher restaurant “Mr. Shnitz.” Photo: Screenshot

A man arrested by French police for the vandalism of a kosher restaurant in Paris on Saturday was released from custody on Monday morning, according to a statement from the public prosecutor’s office in the suburb of Nanterre.

The statement said the man had been released “without prosecution for lack of sufficient evidence to [incriminate the suspect] at this stage,” the AFP news agency reported.

The entrance to the restaurant — a popular sandwich shop called “Mr. Shnitz” in the Levallois-Peret district of the French capital, home to a large Jewish community — was plastered with antisemitic graffiti. The words “Jew” and “Thief” were daubed several times in large black letters on the restaurant’s storefront. Scaffolding was erected outside the restaurant to mask what the local municipality described as the “filthy slogans” on display.

Emphasizing that the incident was deserving of “particular attention,” the authorities pledged to pursue “all avenues” of investigation.

The vandalism drew strong condemnation from the Jewish community and French political leaders across the spectrum. Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, condemned what he described as “the unbearable antisemitic inscriptions,” praising the police for their initial arrest of the man on Saturday after he was spotted on CCTV footage.

Boris Vallaud — the president of the Socialist Party (PS) deputies in the French National Assembly — offered his support to the restaurant owners as he denounced the “disgusting, abject antisemitism.” In a tweet, he observed that “we are not in Germany in the 30s, but in 2023 in Levallois … our vigilance against antisemitism must never falter.”

Thomas Portès, a deputy from the main far left party La France Insoumise (LFI  — “France Rising”), declared separately that “everywhere in the country the extreme right is pouring out its hatred … We will never allow antisemitic remarks to pass. NEVER [sic].”

However, neither the police nor the public prosecutor have so far identified a supporter of the far right as responsible for the vandalism.

Meyer Habib — a French MP who represents French citizens living abroad, including those resident in Israel — tweeted: “No! We are not in Berlin in 1938 during Kristallnacht! Nor in Paris in 1942! But alas in Levallois this morning, August 19, 2023! 80 years later, it continues! Sad fate for the Jews of France!”

Habib went on to reference an ongoing political scandal concerning the invitation extended to an allegedly antisemitic rapper, Médine, to speak at the annual summer schools of LFI and the EELV, France’s environmentalist party.

“Meanwhile, LFI and the Greens are rolling out the red carpet for Médine, a notorious antisemite who will be received as a guest star for their political comeback. This is the new antisemitism!” Habib tweeted.

Yonathan Arfi — president of Crif, the umbrella group representing French Jews — asserted that “there is salon antisemitism which corrupts minds. And there is the antisemitism of the streets which carries its violence before our eyes. Faced with these tags in Levallois, we firmly say that they will not win.”

The vandalism was also condemned by France’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, who stated that “antisemitism is intolerable and should never be trivialized.”

In a signed editorial for the La Tribune news outlet, Julie Martinez — a board member of “France Positive,” a project launched by influencers to stem growing social polarization — argued that antisemitic acts represented an attack on the French Republic.

“Every antisemitic act must be everyone’s business and must be fought as such,” she wrote. “Antisemitism is not just a terrible attack on the Jews of France, but an ongoing attack on the Republic itself.”