Five swastikas were found painted on a former synagogue turned cultural center in the town of Mommenheim, near Strasbourg, in the Alsace region of eastern France on Monday.
The graffiti comes after a spike in anti-Semitic acts which surged by 74% in 2018, according to Interior Ministry figures. In February, President Emmanuel Macron visited a Jewish cemetery after vandals daubed swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans on dozens of graves.
The vandalism sent thousands of people into the streets of France for a protest on Feb. 19.
France is home to the biggest Jewish community in Europe – around 550,000 – a population that has grown by about half since World War II, but anti-Semitic attacks remain common.
The incident comes after a memorial in Strasbourg commemorating a 19th-century synagogue destroyed by the Nazis in 1940 was vandalized over the weekend. Police were investigating the incident, which Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries said "undermines the values of the republic."
