French police detained a Jewish man today over the torching of a Jewish soup kitchen in an attack thought at the time to be the latest in a series of anti-Semitic acts.
Judicial sources said the suspect in the fire, a man in his forties, turned himself in. Detectives who interviewed him said the man was a volunteer at the little-known Paris centre, which provides kosher food for the needy.
Nazi and anti-Semitic graffiti were also daubed on the walls in the incident on August 22nd. The attack sparked widespread condemnation from politicians and community leaders concerned about a wave of racist attacks on Jewish - and Muslim - cemeteries in recent months.
But investigators said numerous spelling mistakes in the graffiti led them to question claims by Jamaat Ansar al-Jihad al-Islamiya, that the previously unknown group was behind the attack.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom last week visited the kitchen during a visit to Paris to discuss action taken by the French authorities against anti-Semitic attacks.
France and Israel clashed last month after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged French Jews to emigrate to Israel to escape the "wildest anti-Semitism".