A Chabad-Lubavitch school teacher was stabbed this evening in Marseille, France, and was initially hospitalized in serious but stable condition. He was released about five hours later, according to family members.
The victim, Rabbi Tsion Saadoun—a longtime Chabad emissary and beloved Judaic-studies teacher at the local Yavne Jewish day school—is often seen about town, teaching, helping people wrap tefillin and sharing Jewish awareness.
According to officials with Chabad of Marseille, Saadoun was seriously wounded, though his life was determined not to be in danger.
“There was a Siyum HaRambam, and he was probably on his way there,” said fellow emissary Rabbi Eliyahu Altabe. “He lives on the border between the Jewish neighborhood and the Arab neighborhood. Right outside his home, he was ambushed by three people. He was stabbed on his face, body, arms and legs. A car drove by, and the attackers got scared and fled.”
Reports indicate that the attackers uttered anti-Semitic phrases and declared themselves ISIS supporters while knifing the teacher. The attack follows on the heels of an Oct. 24 incident, also in Marseille, in which three Jewish residents were stabbed outside of a synagogue.
Rabbi Emauel Taubenblatt, director of Beit Chabad Or Menachem in Marseille, said Saadoun has served as a Chabad emissary in the southern French city for 29 years and is very active with young people. He gives a class in Tanya every Wednesday evening.
“We had a Siyum HaRambam tonight with a few hundred people,” explained Taubenblatt. “Rabbi Yechiel Kalmenson, the rosh yeshivah of Tomchei Temimim in Brunoy, spoke, and all of the shluchim in the city were there. There was a very big crowd; it was very exciting. All of a sudden, people started looking at their phones as they started getting messages that a Jewish man had been stabbed in Marseille.
“When we heard that it was Tsion, the program stopped, and we all said Tehillim [Psalms] for him. Rabbi [Yosef Y.] Labkowski, the head Chabad emissary in Marseille, rushed to the hospital and reported that he was going to be OK.”
Earlier in the day, police raided a building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis where suspected armed terrorists were hiding. Two people, including a female suicide bomber who triggered an explosive, were killed and seven other alleged terrorists were arrested, according to reports.
The incidents came just days after 129 people were killed on Nov. 13 in multiple terror attacks that targeted recreational areas and restaurants.
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