In one of the worst recent anti-Semitic attacks in France, arsonists destroyed a Jewish center in Paris after daubing it with racist graffiti and swastikas, provoking condemnation by the entire political class Sunday and touching off a manhunt for the attackers. An Arabic-language statement posted on an Islamic web site said the attack was carried out by “a group of young mujahedeen” (fighters), but the claim could not be independently verified. President Jacques Chirac strongly condemned “this indescribable act” and underlined “the absolute determination” to capture the perpetrators “so they are judged and convicted as severely as possible”.