Torah scrolls of significant value were stolen during the night from Sunday to Monday July 27 in the synagogue of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine), we learned from the mayor of the city and from corroborating sources.
According to the first elements of the investigation, two men entered the synagogue by climbing using a rope and stole between 13 and 15 Torah scrolls. “The cameras were used, we have images” of the two perpetrators, details the mayor of Levallois-Perret, Agnès Pottier-Dumas.
The rolls are said to be worth between €80,000 and €100,000. These objects are the most sacred that a synagogue can contain. Simply housing Torah scrolls is what makes the place sacred.
“A criminal act”
“It is a spiritual trauma for the entire Jewish community in France and around the world. It was the Torah that was targeted, no property was damaged, no other object was stolen,” said Philippe Cohen, president of the Jewish Cultural and Religious Association of Levallois (Accil) in a video posted on Facebook.
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“It is a criminal act but also an anti-Semitic act which targeted the Torah”, adds Chalom Lellouche, rabbi of Levallois-Perret, in the same video.
“By stealing Torah scrolls from the great synagogue of Levallois, it was not a simple theft that was committed, it was an entire community of believers who were wounded to the depths of their souls,” the Hauts-de-Seine prefecture reacted on X after a trip to the site by prefect Alexandre Brugère.
The Levallois-Perret synagogue is one of the most important in the inner suburbs of Paris. The city in western Paris has become an epicenter of French Jewish life in recent years, with Jews feeling safe there.
