Jewish communities in the French city of Marseilles are torn over whether Jews should continue to openly wear kippot in light of ongoing antisemitic attacks in the area.

Tzvi Ammar, president of the local office of the Consistoire, the organization responsible for religious services, said that Jewish men should “remove the kippah during these troubled times” because “the preservation of life is sacrosanct”.

His comments come after a Jewish man was attacked by a man wielding a machete outside a synagogue on Monday. In November, a Jewish teacher was also attacked and stabbed by three people claiming to support Islamic State.

Mr Ammar said: "On Saturday, for the first time in my life, I will not be wearing the kippah to the synagogue."

However, France's Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia urged Jews in France to continue wearing kippot and form a "united front".

Michele Teboul, president of the local branch of CRIF – the Jewish community’s umbrella body in France – said that she “could not support a measure which dials back hundreds of years during which Jews were able to practice their faiths and live freely as citizens of the French Republic.” However she did concede that Jewish men might want to “wear a hat on top of their kippah, depending on the situation”.

In similar vein, Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, described not wearing the kippah in public as "a defeatist attitude".

France has been under a state of emergency following the terror attack in November that left 130 people dead.