France’s Jewish Community Torn Over Religious Leader’s Call To Avoid Skullcap

Two days after a high school student brutally attacked a Jewish teacher in the southern French city of Marseille, the town's top Jewish leader has urged Jews to not wear skullcaps in public.

"I am encouraging Marseille's Jewish community — provisionally, of course — not to wear the kippa […] in order to save human lives," Zvi Ammar told French new channel i-Télé, referring to the  cap which is also often called a yarmulke.

Ammar is the head of Marseille's Israeli Consistory, a council that presides over the city's local Jewish congregations. Speaking Tuesday, he said the decision had been motivated by "an exceptional situation."

The 15-year-old teenager attacked the teacher with a machete and later claimed he had acted "in the name of Allah" and on behalf of the Islamic State.

On Wednesday, the anti-terrorism section of the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation and required the teen be provisionally detained.

Related: French Teenager Attacks Jewish Teacher with Machete, Says He Did So for the Islamic State

Ammar's announcement has sparked a fierce debate within France's Jewish community. "It's the resurrection of a fairly old debate surrounding the wearing of the kippa," explained Samuel Ghisle-Meilhac, a sociologist and professor at Université Paris XVIII and Sciences Po. Speaking to VICE News Wednesday, he explained that many Jews already "hide their kippa under hoods or baseball caps."

Benjamin Amsellem, 35, was wearing the traditional skullcap and was on his way to La Source, a private school where he teaches, when the teen attacked him Monday. The teen struck him several times in the arms and back, before fleeing the scene. He was apprehended minutes later outside a subway station.

According to the initial elements of the investigation, Amsellem was able to fend off his attacker using a copy of the Torah, and with the help of a passerby.

The suspect is of Turkish-Kurd origin and has been referred to as "Yusuf" by local daily La Provence. He was transferred Wednesday to the Palace of Justice, in Paris. He reportedly claimed allegiance to IS during questioning.

"Marseille is home to France's second-largest Jewish community," said Ghisle-Meilhac, who estimates that between 60,000 and 80,000 Jews are currently living in the port city. "There is what can be called a Jewish city, with schools, businesses, cultural centers," he explained. "All of these were mostly spared over the last few years."

According to the expert, the measure could be adopted by children who frequent Marseille's Jewish schools. "But I can't imagine rabbis no longer wearing hats," he said, "and besides, at what point will they decide that things have improved and the ban must be lifted?"

While Ammar's remarks prompted immediate reactions across the French Jewish community, not everyone opposes the measure. Leading the majority 'against' camp is the Council of French Jewish Institutions or CRIF, which released a statement Tuesday accusing Ammar of a "defeatist attitude" and of "surrendering" to jihadists. CRIF president Robert Cukierman called on the Jewish community to "resist and fight."

A spokesperson for CRIF said the organization "stood by its statements," adding that no meeting had been scheduled for now between its representatives and Ammar.

In an interview with French radio station France Info, Chief Rabbi of France Haïm Korsia rejected Ammar's appeal, saying that wearing a skullcap was "a personal choice that cannot be dictated by fear." Korsia, who is France's top Jewish authority, encouraged Marseille soccer fans to "demonstrate during the next game […] by wearing a baseball cap, a hat, a kippa, anything, on their head."

Other representatives of the Jewish community have refused to condemn Ammar's remarks, including local CRIF representative Michèle Teboul, who said she didn't personally reject the measure "if it could help keep Jews safe."

The latest from the investigation confirms the anti-Semitic attack was indeed premeditated — information already put forth Monday by Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin.

According to local daily La Provence, Yusuf — who is days away from his 16th birthday — told investigators he was ashamed "to not have had the strength" to kill the teacher, and that he was "proud" of his actions. Robin said Monday that the teen was carrying another blade at the time of his arrest, which he was "planning to use on officers."

Despite the suspect being portrayed as a hardworking student by his friends and family, investigators have alluded to the teen's "disturbing" profile. Authorities believe the teen was radicalized online. "I don't represent Daesh [the Arabic acronym for IS], they represent me," the teen is said to have told police officers who were questioning him.

Terror offenses in France are dealt with much more severely than common law crimes, although the sentences handed to minors are half as heavy as those imposed on adults. In rare cases, minors above the age of 16 can be tried as adults. If Yusuf is found guilty of the charge of "attempted murder in connection to a terrorist undertaking," he will face up to five years in prison.

France's politicians have not yet responded to Ammar's appeal for Jews to temporarily forego wearing the kippa. "It [the Jewish community] must make its own arrangements," said Marseile Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin. Speaking on i-Télé tv on Wednesday, government spokesman Stéphane Le Foll reiterated the government's duty to protect all citizens in light of ever-evolving forms of anti-Semitism.

France has experienced a surge in anti-Semitic violence in recent years, starting with the 2012 Toulouse and Montauban shootings carried out by 23-year-old Mohammed Merah. In January 2015, two days after the Charlie Hebdo attack, gunman Amedy Coulibaly took hostages at a kosher supermarket in the east of Paris, killing four.

Related: French Jews Nervous in Wake of Paris Kosher Market Attack, Rising Anti-Semitism

A couple of months ago, a 56-year-old Jewish teacher in Marseille was stabbed by three men, one of whom was wearing an Islamic State T-shirt.

Following the January Paris attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Jews to return "home" to Israel. Israeli government statistics published by the CRIF show that around 8,000 Jewish French citizens relocated to Israel in 2015, a record number and a 11 percent rise from the previous year.

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