Paris Bombing, 1980

Paris, France
3 October 1980

At the beginning of Shabbat, which coincided with the holiday of Simchat Torah, the Copernic Street synagogue was filled with Jews who had come for the prayer service. There were many guests present for three bar mitzvas and two bat mitzvas that were taking place that weekend.

Outside, a motorcycle packed with 10 kg of explosives was parked. At 6:38 pm, the bomb detonated. The front door of the building was blown inward. The synagogue had a glass roof, which collapsed on the people inside causing many injuries. However, the four people who were killed in the attack were all outside the synagogue.

"One of the dead was identified as Aliza Shagrir, 42, an Israeli film editor who was in Paris for a two-week holiday with her 17-year-old son. She was walking to the home of a friend to meet her husband when the bomb exploded. She died on the way to the hospital. A 14-year-old girl driving a moped had the skin of her face peeled off. An elderly woman had her legs severed. Most of the other dead and injured were either passing by the synagogue or milling outside." (JTA)

The perpetrator Hassan Diab, was a Lebanese-Canadian. He was apprehended and extradited to France in 2014, where he was held until 2018, when he was released after police determined there was not enough evidence to go to trial. (Haaretz)

Today a plaque outside the synagogue marks the event.

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