FRENCH JEWISH OFFICIAL MURDERED

French Jewish official murdered
The vice president of the Association of Liberal Jews of Toulouse was found murdered in his home last Friday. A freelance journalist and activist in the community, Rene Itzhak Autard, 60, was found, according to the police, “in a pool of blood, covered with pillows,” his face and head beaten numerous times with a blunt object. The police said they are not ruling out any possible motive, including anti-Semitism, for the murder. Autard was an active member in the Mouvement des Juifs Liberaux, the French Reform movement of Judaism, and had opened a soup kitchen.