Algerian nanny in France on trial for allegedly poisoning Jewish family ‘because they have money’

JTA – A nanny from Algeria went on trial on Tuesday, 9 December, in a suburb of Paris for allegedly poisoning the Jewish family she was employed by because of their religion. 

The defendant, identified as Leïla Y, 42, had been living in France illegally when she was first hired by the Jewish family in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, in November 2023, according to the French outlet Le Parisien. 

Two months later, the mother of the family, who has three children aged two, five, and seven, went to a local police station after she tasted cleaning products in her family’s food and wine and experienced a burning sensation in her eyes when using her makeup remover. Her five-year-old daughter then said she had seen the nanny putting a soapy product into a bottle labelled “Jerusalem”, a brand of kosher alcohol, according to Le Parisien. 

Following an investigation, toxicology reports found high levels of polyethylene glycol and other chemicals in the home’s wine, whisky, fig brandy, grape juice, and pasta, which were “harmful, even corrosive, and can cause serious injuries to the digestive tract”, according to a committal order from the criminal court obtained by Le Parisien. 

During her arrest and a subsequent search of the home on 5 February 2024, Leïla Y told police, “Because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman. She only brought me trouble.” 

While in custody, she also told officers, “I was angry, they were disrespecting me,” adding, “I knew it might cause them pain, but not enough to kill them.” 

The trial comes as antisemitic incidents and attacks in France have surged since 7 October 2023, with 646 antisemitic acts occurring in the first six months of 2025, according to the French interior ministry. 

“This is a particularly well-documented and illuminating case concerning the reality of everyday or pervasive antisemitism,” said Sacha Ghozlan, a lawyer for the family, in a statement to Le Parisien. 

In recent years, other trials concerning antisemitism in France have also roiled the local Jewish community. In 2021, French Jews demonstrated after a court ruled that a man accused of killing his Jewish neighbour, Sarah Halimi, was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions. In June 2024, the trial and conviction of two teenage boys for the antisemitic gang rape of a 12-year-old girl also sparked protests by local Jewish groups. 

Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, was called as a witness in the trial of Leïla Y, telling Le Parisien that the case, “reveals a structural violence, the singular gravity of which must neither be minimised nor concealed”. 

The Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) and International League Against Racism and Antisemitism both joined the family’s civil case. 

“Since 7 October, France has seen an unprecedented explosion of antisemitic acts: threats, violence; intimidation; and vandalism,” wrote the UEJF in a post on Instagram. “We call on the justice system to establish the whole truth, and to recognise fully the antisemitic dimension of these acts. We express our entire solidarity with the targeted family, which has been betrayed in its most essential intimacy: that of the protection of its children.” 

In a post on X, the American Jewish Committee also wrote that it was “horrified and outraged” by the alleged poisoning, citing a 2024 survey of antisemitism in France conducted by the organisation which found that “one in four French Jews say they have been the victim of an antisemitic act since 7 October 2023”. 

Leïla Y is being tried on numerous charges, including falsifying documents and “administering a harmful substance resulting in incapacity exceeding eight days, committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion.” 

Her lawyer, Solange Marle, argued that Leïla Y’s statements were “focused on a class issue and financial resentment”, according to Le Parisien. 

But according to the outlet, the children told police that she had “regularly asked them questions about religion” and that the younger child saw her “repeatedly knock on mezuzots”. The defendant also reportedly googled “Berber Jewish women” and “religious practices of Judaism” in December 2023, and told a security guard at the family’s school, “But they have money, they can give it to me.” 

The mother of the Jewish family, who has requested anonymity, told Le Parisien that the alleged poisoning had left them with “indelible scars”. 

“We live in constant fear; we no longer trust anyone,” the mother said. “Even though I’m not responsible for what happened, I live with the guilt of having let someone into our home who endangered what we hold most dear in the world: our children.”