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Armed attacker enters Moscow Synagogue

A man has broken into the Great Synagogue in Moscow during the Shabbat evening prayers on Saturday.

The attacker entered the Synagogue with a gun, perhaps a taser, and a cylinder of gas, asking to meet Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis.

When he entered the Synagogue, there were around 150 worshippers present.

Security removed him and attempted to hold him on the other side of the road, but he injured one of the guards, briefly escaping before being arrested by the police.

Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt commented “The evening prayer was conducted as usual, and we will conduct the High Holiday prayers as usual. We work in conjunction with the Moscow police, and I bless the entire Jewish people that they should be ‘signed and sealed’ for a good year”.

Additional security is being arranged for the High Holy Days. Incidents such at these highlight just how vulnerable Jewish communities continue to be to acts of terrorism and violence.

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Europe Featured France Hazardous Materials Location Medium

Car with cylinders of gas discovered outside Marseille Synagogue

A suspect vehicle filled with canisters of gas was found parked outside a Synagogue in Marseille on Saturday.

Police found the car outside the Bar Yohaye Jewish Community Centre.

Police had recently apprehended three individuals in connection to a planned attack outside the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, which was to involve a car filled with canisters of explosive gas. However, there seems to be no indication that the two incidents are linked.

The police are searching for the owner of the car.

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Denmark Everyday Antisemitism Hazardous Materials Terrorism Ξ E-mail

Danish schoolgirl and returned fighter from Syria charged over Jewish school bomb plot

A 16-year-old Danish girl has been charged with planning a terrorist attack on two schools, one of them Jewish. According to Danish police, the girl was befriended by a 24-year-old who local media have said had returned to Denmark after fighting in Syria. The girl was charged after acquiring chemicals for bombs, and her friend has also been charged over his complicity in preparing the bombs, including providing bomb-making instructions. Local channel TV2 said the girl had recently converted to Islam.

Both the girl and her friend have pleaded innocence.

In February last year, a terrorist gunman killed two people in shooting attacks at a debating event, before moving on and murdering Dan Udan, a security volunteer at a Copenhagen synagogue.

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Everyday Antisemitism France Hazardous Materials Ξ E-mail

Fourteen Jewish women injured by chemical agent on French synagogue entry panel

French emergency services have treated fourteen women for burns and itching on their hands and eyes after they touched a security code panel at a synagogue in Bonneuil-sur-Marne which had been coated with a chemical agent.

The incident took place after services had finished and soldiers charged with protecting the synagogue had finished their watch.

Twenty-five emergency medical staff had to be deployed and the victims have now returned home.

A police laboratory is now identifying the chemical used. Police are treating the incident as a criminal act.

Source: CFCA/Le Parisien

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Hazardous Materials Posters Rhode Island

Hazardous materials teams deployed to antisemitic incident in Rhode Island

Hazardous materials teams and police were deployed in Providence, Rhode Island, following the discovery of packages containing antisemitic messages and what is thought to be rice. Hazardous materials teams were called in over fears that it could be a deadly substance such as anthrax, which is a possible motive for the perpetrator putting rice in the packages. The packages were placed outside homes but local police do not believe that the packages were targeted at individuals. The incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

Photo: Providence Journal