By PIERRE-YVES ROGER June 5, 2004

PARIS (AP) - A Jewish teenager was stabbed in the chest by a man crying “God is great,'’ officials said. It was the second attack in a week on a young Jewish man.

The 17-year-old victim, who was not identified, was attacked Friday afternoon as he left a Jewish school in Epinay-sur-Seine, north of Paris in the rough Seine-Saint-Denis district, said local officials on condition of anonymity.

The victim was taken to a hospital in serious condition, and the attacker fled. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin visited the site where the attack occurred.

Witnesses said a man shouted “Allahu Akbar'’ (God is great) then plunged a knife into the young man before fleeing.

The victim’s injuries were not life-threatening, said Gilles Taieb, a spokesman for the Jewish Consistoire, which directs Jewish religious life.

Last Sunday, the 17-year-old son of a rabbi was attacked by a group of young men as he was about to enter his home in suburban Paris. The group of young hit the son of rabbi Victor Bellahcem, while yelling anti-Semitic insults.

The Sunday attack came hours after a fire was set in front of the Strasbourg home of the Muslim representative of the eastern region of Alsace, Aziz el Alaouani. Racist and Nazi graffiti was scrawled on the walls of his home.

President Jacques Chirac condemned the latest attack.

“Tolerance is the cement of our national community,'’ a statement issued by the presidential office said.

Anti-Semitic attacks have been on the rise in France despite a series of measures put in place to counter them. The Interior Ministry has reported 67 anti-Semitic acts in the first quarter of 2004, a 60-percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Young Muslims have been blamed for many of the attacks which, over the past few years, have coincided with rising tension in the Middle East.

Muslims have also been victims of racist attacks. In March, an arson fire damaged a mosque and destroyed a Muslim prayer hall in Annecy, in southeast France.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 8th, 2004 and is filed under news.