PARIS (EJP)---Some 300 people gathered Sunday evening at the Beth Haya Mouchka Lubavitch synagogue in Paris’s 19th district to pray for the recovery of the Jewish teenager savaged Saturday evening by a gang of youths of Black African origin.
The synagogue is located on 49 Rue Petit, near the place where the 17-year-old Rudy Haddad, a member of the local Lubavitch community, was attacked by the youths who beat him with metal bars and smashed his skull.
The victim, who suffered several broken ribs and a fractured skull, was placed in intensive care at Cochin hospital in central Paris. He was still in coma Monday morning.
“The Beth Haya Mouchka synagogue expresses its solidarity with the victim and his family and calls on police services to leave no stone unturned in order to arrest all the culprits of this act that imperils peace, serenity and general harmony which have existed in the quarter,” a synagogue statement said.
The multi-ethnic area, which is harbouring several synagogues, has been the stage of several anti-Jewish incidents in the last months, Raphael Haddad, had of the union of French Jewish students (UEJF), said.
Speaking on French tv, the new chief rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, who was elected on Sunday, mentioned the fact that young Jewish girls fear to walk in a neighborhood park on Sabbath."
The Socialist Mayor of the 19th district has asked for police reinforcements.
"We were celebrating Shabbat. My son was wearing his kippah (skullcap) and was coming home," Rudy’s father told RTL radio.
"A gang of about a dozen youths attacked him because he was wearing a kippah and because he is a Jew," said Philippe Haddad.
"My wife and I are very upset." 
Picture: the place where the Jewish teenager was aggressed after leaving the nearby Lubavitch synagogue.
Gérard Cachet, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the attack was “clearly anti-Semitic” as the young man was wearing a kippah and no other motivation was found.
"There is no doubt that this is an anti-Semitic act," said Ariel Goldmann, vice president of CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish organisations.
Police said they had detained five youths in connection with the beating.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday led condemnation of the attack. Travelling to Israel for a state visit, he issued a statement expressing his "profound indignation" and reaffirmed his "total determination to combat all forms of racism and anti-Semitism."
Defence Minister Herve Morin later urged the French courts to be "intransigent" when the case comes to trial.
"Justice must be implacable with these matters," he told BFM-TV. "The Republic must be intransigent on this issue," he added, calling for sentencing of those found guilty to be "applied with the utmost rigour."
Political condemnations
Condemning the attack, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe called on authorities to enact new measures to combat xenophobia if the investigation showed that it was motivated by anti-Semitism.
"If intolerance was at the heart of this tragedy, then this compels authorities to take all necessary measures to guarantee in our republic freedom of conscience and safety for all," said Delanoe.
Sarkozy's governing right-wing UMP party condemned a "savage and anti-Semitic attack" and called for severe punishment for the perpetrators, party spokesman Dominique Paille said.
The opposition Socialists called for a full investigation into the "attack which appears to have an anti-Semitic character" and said those responsible should be tried quickly, party spokesman Stephane Foll said.
Three prominent anti-racism organisations also suggested it was a troubling act of anti-Semitic violence and called on French authorities to take action to combat hate crimes.
"What is taking place in a corner of Paris is inadmissible and must raise serious alarm with our elected officials," said SOS Racisme.
The League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism recalled the 2006 murder of Ilan Halimi and added "it is high time to deal a decisive blow to the unspeakable violence that Jews suffer in a recurrent fashion in the heart of the capital of the French republic."
Halimi, 23, was kidnapped by a gang and brutally murdered in February 2006, prompting French authorities to pledge a new resolve to fight anti-Semitism.
The Mouvement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples said it was "horrified and condemned with the utmost severity the unspeakable anti-Semitic attack against a young man of Jewish faith".
Anti-Semitism is a sensitive issue in France, where the 600,000-strong Jewish community is western Europe's largest, and which is also home to a five-million strong Muslim population.