A Paris synagogue is ransacked and Jewish businesses are hit during the French riots

Among the hundreds of smashed storefronts in France this weekend, one address was not a store. Looters entered a synagogue in the 19th arrondissement of Paris and ransacked its interior offices. Footage released by the Combat Antisemitism Movement shows tables and chairs overturned and prayer books and papers thrown across the rooms.

The people who pray there do not believe the choice was random. A member of the congregation told IsraJ the looters likely targeted the temple because they believed a Jewish property would have money to steal. It cannot be a coincidence that they chose to target a Jewish place of worship, the congregant said. Sacha Roytman, chief executive of the Combat Antisemitism Movement, said in a statement that when chaos and violence take over the streets, synagogues are the first to suffer, and called the desecration a clear warning sign. What begins against Jews never stops there, he said. Jewish leaders have called on French officials to declare a state of emergency.

The synagogue was one target among many in a night of general looting, and that is part of the fact pattern, not a reason to set it aside. In Marseille, a city with one of the largest Jewish populations in Europe, rioters vandalized dozens of shops. Across the country, luxury stores, supermarkets and public buildings were hit, and the retail federation counted about 1,500 businesses affected across the country. No arrests specific to the synagogue attack have been announced, and no official finding on motive has been made, as of October 18.

What is established is narrow and plain. A house of worship was entered and wrecked during riots that the president himself described as the work of seditious elements and delinquents. Whether the men who did it came for money, for Jews, or for both is a question the investigation has not answered in public. The congregation, cleaning up its prayer books on a Sunday, has already given its answer.