(IsraelNN.com) Anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, but France has seen a particularly significant jump in the number of violent attacks on Jews. On Thursday, a rabbi was punched in the face and hospitalized.

The rabbi of Nord-Pas-de-Calais in northern France was violently attacked Thursday morning by a 20-year-old man while walking in the lanes of the Paris North train station.

Rabbi Elie Dahan said, “I arrived from Lille and was walking in the Paris station when the man, who was accompanied by a woman, looked at me and cried: dirty Jew, you are looking at me, I will punch you, dirty Jew," Dahan recounted. "He then punched me before running away.”

“My glasses were broken and my eye started bleeding. Several people try to catch my attacker but he escaped," said Dahan, who added that he was surprised by this attack. "I think the guy wanted to show off to his girlfriend. He saw my beard and hat, and told himself: here is a Jew to beat.”...