- by
- 01 30, 2025
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Ashortwalk from the halal butcher and Istanbul supermarket, amid the brutalist tower blocks of Sarcelles, lies what remains of “Little Jerusalem”. Tucked under a rain-streaked concrete block, across the road from the Grand Synagogue and a Hebrew bookshop, a kosher bakery is doing brisk business. Around the corner, diners at Chez Inoun tuck into grilled lamb over a glass of kosher merlot from Galilee.Sephardic Jews first arrived in Sarcelles from French north Africa in the 1950s and 1960s, when the place was considered a model of a modernist new town. At first glance, life goes on pretty much as normal. Yet, as antisemitism surges across France, this (suburb) north of Paris is both a test of whether locally cordial intercommunal ties can last, and a hub of dread.