Only a few years ago the eyes of the Jewish world were nervously trained on France as that country’s Jewish community faced an unprecedented level of violence directed toward it in recent years. Much of that hatred – which resulted in firebombing of a few synagogues, roughing up Jews walking in the street and vicious articles in the media – was an expression of anti-Israel hatred that targeted all Jews. Emergency leadership missions took place as did top level dialogue. And, defying the predictions of many, the French government responded. Even more importantly, so did the official apparatus of the nation’s Muslim community, including via a personal dialogue between Paris’s chief rabbi and chief imam.

With that in mind, it is not a surprise but still quite welcome to learn that about 100 Jews and Muslims marched through the streets of the storied capital city last week under the auspices of the French Jewish-Muslim Friendship group, according to the JTA Wire Service. They were showing outraged and solidarity over the desecration of more than 500 Muslim and up to 20 Jewish graves.

Of course, the reason for their joint action comes from the equally disturbing reality that between Dec. 7 and 8, on the eve of the Muslim holiday Id al-Adha, a suspected group of neo-Nazis sprayed racist slurs on military gravestones in a northern France cemetery. As Bernard Kanovitch, a leading member of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF, to a crowd at the Place de la Bastille, “There are so many things uniting the Jewish and Muslim communities. What shocks us isn’t just that this happened again, but also the number of tombs.” On top of al that, on Dec. 12, more than 2,000 people gathered at the Notre Dame de Lorette cemetery to hear community and political leaders condemn the crime.

France still has tremendous problems in policing and controlling the racists and anti-Semites in its midst. Yet, there is progress on this issue. It is duly noted and must be roundly applauded and encouraged.