French Café Manager To Face Trial After Telling Jewish Patron ‘There Are Too Many Of You’

GRENOBLE, FRANCE (VINnews) — A café manager at the French Alpine ski resort of Les Deux Alpes will stand trial March 2, 2027, on a charge of a public discriminatory insult after she told a Jewish customer there were “too many of you,” prosecutors said.

The Grenoble prosecutor’s office said Wednesday that the woman is charged with a public discriminatory insult against an individual on the basis of religion. The case will be heard at the Grenoble criminal court.

The exchange occurred Aug. 14 at a refreshment stand near the resort’s summer toboggan run. Customer Elie Sultan, a 53-year-old Paris bookstore owner who has visited the station for years, recorded the remarks and later posted the video, which spread widely and prompted an investigation by the National Gendarmerie.

In the footage, the manager tells Sultan, “There are too many of you.” When he asks whom she means, she replies, “The Jewish community. There are too many of you,” and adds that “at a certain point that exceeds people.” Accounts of the incident also describe her telling the group to leave.

Prosecutors said the investigation confirmed that she made the comments to a customer and found no evidence that Sultan provoked the offense.

Sultan said he wanted the matter handled in court rather than left as an online controversy. He has said verbal condemnations are not enough and that he wants concrete action and a trial. He also said he would continue visiting Les Deux Alpes but would not return to that stand.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned the remarks after the video circulated, saying such comments have no place in the Republic. Aurore Bergé, the minister responsible for combating discrimination, said antisemitic conduct and remarks cannot be tolerated.

Les Deux Alpes, in the Isère department, has long drawn Orthodox Jewish vacationers in summer because of facilities that accommodate religious practice. The case has drawn renewed attention to tensions involving Jewish visitors at the year-round mountain resort.

The manager’s name has not been released by authorities. She was questioned after the video emerged and acknowledged making the remarks while offering what she described as context, French media reported at the time.