the representative council of Jewish institutions in France. Richard Marceau is vice-president of external affairs and general counsel at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.It was a Friday. A Shabbat evening during the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.Copernic Synagogue on the street of the same name. The building’s glass roof collapsed on the congregation as one of the doors blew off. Parked cars were tossed into the road, and storefronts 150 metres away were destroyed.
In Rome, in 1981, a passport had been seized from a presumed member of the PFLP-SO; in it were entry and exit stamps from Spain, the country from which the bomber was thought to have travelled, on dates corresponding with those of the attack. Last month, 43 years after the attack, the second trial began in Paris. In the defendant’s box, nobody. As was his right, Mr. Diab had opted not to appear at his trial.