France summoned the US ambassador after he accused the government of failing to stem hate crimes against Jews. Charles Kushner wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising insufficient action and urged enforcement of hate‑crime laws and reduced criticism of Israel. Kushner said antisemitic assaults, vandalism and defacement occur daily. The French interior ministry reported a 27% fall in antisemitic acts in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, but said numbers remained significantly higher than in 2023, with 646 acts recorded from January to July. Investigations include a leisure‑park manager who refused entry to 150 young Israeli tourists and the felling of an olive tree planted as a memorial. Macron vowed perpetrators will be punished.
Charles Kushner, who is Jewish, was ordered to report to the foreign ministry on Monday after he wrote a letter to Emmanuel Macron criticising a lack of sufficient action by the government to confront the dramatic rise in antisemitism in France. In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalised, Kushner, whose son Jared is Donald Trump's son-in-law, said in the letter, published in the Washington Post on Sunday.
He urged the French president to enforce hate-crime laws and tone down criticism of Israel, saying Macron's pledge that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state at the UN in September had further fuelled antisemitic incidents in France. The French interior ministry said on Monday the number of antisemitic acts recorded in France in the first six months of 2025 had fallen by 27% compared with the same period last year, but remained significantly higher than in 2023.
The ministry said police had registered 646 antisemitic acts from January to July, of which almost two-thirds targeted people and the remainder, buildings. France is home to western Europe's largest Jewish population, at about half a million people. Among recent incidents, French prosecutors are have placed the manager of a leisure park who refused entry to a group of 150 young Israeli tourists under investigation on suspicion of discrimination based on ethnic origin or nationality.
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