Jewish Woman Stabbed in Home, Swastika Engraved on Door in Suspected Antisemitic Attack in France

A Jewish woman was stabbed in her home in Lyon, France and had a Swastika engraved on her front door in what police are treating as a potential antisemitic attack.

A 30-year-old woman was hospitalised after suffering two wounds to her abdomen in a suspected stabbing attack at her home in Lyon on Saturday afternoon. She has since been released from hospital after her injuries were deemed to not be life-threatening.

According to the victim, a man wearing dark clothes and a mask rang her doorbell several times “insistently” and stabbed her when she opened the door. A Swastika symbol was later discovered scratched into her door, the local Le Progres newspaper reported.

This photograph taken on November 5, 2023 shows a view of a Mezouza and the door of the apartment, where a Jewish woman was stabbed the day before in the French city of Lyon. (Photo by Jeff PACHOUD / AFP) (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the victim’s lawyer, Maître Stéphane Drai, “the family was known as a family of the Jewish faith”. The woman’s door was also decorated with a mezuzah, a Jewish object of faith often hung outside the entrance of a home.

The public prosecutor’s office in Lyon has opened an investigation into a “possible anti-Semitic motive” in the alleged attempted murder.

Mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet condemned the attack and the “unspeakable surge of violence.” adding: “All my support to the victim, to her loved ones.”

However, according to police sources speaking to Le Figaro, other potential motives have not been ruled out, with the victim currently being in the process of divorcing her husband, with whom she reportedly is not on good terms.

Another police source told the paper that “it is rare for a knife attack to result in only superficial injuries,” and that the community in which she resides is not known for having a significant Jewish population.

The attack does come amid increased antisemitic incidents across France, with Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin revealing earlier this week that 819 antisemitic acts had been recorded in France since the October 7th Hamas terror strikes against Israel.

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