France\’s Jewish leader, Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, has received several death threats via Facebook, Ynet has learned,
According to a JTA report, Paris\’ police have launched an investigation into the matter.
French authorities are reportedly interviewing people connected to a photomontage distributed through the social media platform, which depicts Rabbi Bernheim with a revolver pointing at his head.
The picture also shows Bernheim wearing a Star of David on his forehead while a lighter labeled as containing Zyklon B is being held up to his nostrils.
Zyklon B was the compound used in by the Nazis in death camps\’ gas chambers.
The image, signed by "Bakala LBD" also reads: "Don\’t worry, Bernheim, I won’t deport you. I just want you to breathe in the content of this lighter."
According to the JTA, "Bakala LBD" is the handle of a Facebook user "whose page offers profanities about Israel and maps that allege the expansion of Jewish presence in Israel and the West Bank."
CRIF, the umbrella organization representing French Jewish communities, condemned the threats.
"Anti-Semitism is not an atmosphere. It kills," Ron Rafaeli of SPCJ, the security service of France’s Jewish communities, said last week at the European Parliament in Brussels.
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