Tensions have been rising for weeks, with an increase in antisemitic acts

He watched in horror as several hundred youths marched towards his synagogue chanting slogans that he had never thought would again be uttered in France.

“They were shouting: ‘Death to Jews,’ and ‘Slit Jews’ throats’,” said David, a Jewish sound engineer who has lived in the multicultural Parisian suburb of Sarcelles for 49 years. “It took us back to 1938.”

David, who declined to give his surname, was speaking after his suburb north of the capital witnessed an anti-Jewish riot on Sunday night involving Muslim youths demonstrating in support of the Palestinian cause.

The violence stunned the French political class amid warnings that the country could be fractured by a religious conflict with its origins in the Middle East — pitting France’s 500,000 Jews against