French president warns against anti-Semitism

PARIS (RNS) - French President Jacques Chirac warned against anti-Semitism in France as he paid homage to a new wall bearing the names of some 76,000 Jews deported from France to Nazi concentration camps.

Holocaust tributes in Europe came amid concerns that anti-Semitism is on the rise in some parts of the region. On Jan. 27, world leaders joined to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Polish death camp of Auschwitz. Recently, an Israeli government report described a sharp spike in anti-Jewish acts in Britain and Russia.

On Jan. 24, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin also urged the French, and particularly schoolteachers, to fight against the "resurgence of the hydra" of anti-Semitism.