MARSEILLE, France (AP) - Thousands of Jews held prayer services Monday near the charred remains of a synagogue, bringing an emotional close to a weekend that forced France and other European countries to confront the specter of anti-Semitism linked to Mideast tensions.
In Brussels, a synagogue was damaged by gasoline bombs, and police in Turkey heightened security at religious sites amid fears that violence in the Middle East could take its toll on European communities.
France deployed riot police at Jewish religious sites and schools nationwide after the arson attack late Sunday at Marseille's Or Aviv temple. The fire destroyed the synagogue, leaving it a blackened mass.
"We are a peaceful community," said Zvi Amar, a Jewish leader in Marseille, France's second-biggest city. "We don't understand why they are attacking us."
More than 3,000 people marched in silence to a cemetery near the burned synagogue. There, they recited prayers of mourning and buried remnants of the temple's five holy Torah scrolls, which were destroyed in the fire.
The attack was the third on a synagogue in France over the Passover-Easter weekend and it embarrassed the government, which has tried to play down accusations that anti-Semitism is a growing problem in the country.
Meanwhile, Arab protests against Israel escalated Monday, with demonstrators clashing with police in the Jordanian and Egyptian capitals, as their leaders searched for ways to defuse the crisis.
Arabs also took to the streets in Egypt. Lebanon, Libya, Sudan and Yemen.
After a group of artists, intellectuals and opposition politicians called for a march from Cairo University to the nearby Israeli Embassy, hundreds of marchers ran toward the embassy and broke through a line of riot police.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannons and whipped demonstrators with their batons, pushing protesters back to a spot near the campus. The protest lasted for seven hours.
Thirty protesters were arrested and nine police officers were struck by stones. Sixteen protesters - most suffering the effects of tear gas - were hospitalized.