Paris demonstration against anti-Semitism
Photo: AFP
French Jews forced to ‘disown culture’
Rising tide of anti-Semitism in France causing some Jews to shed their Jewish identity, visiting expert says
The rising tide of anti-Semitism in France is causing some Jews to shed their Jewish identity, according to a visiting expert.
He was speaking to the AJN ahead of his arrival in Australia as the keynote speaker for the Jewish Communal Appeal’s 2006 campaign.
“People do not know how to defend Jewish culture, so they are turning against Israel, and some are even disowning the values of Jewish culture,” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, the director of international relations at the Simon Wiesenthal’s Paris office.
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Dr Samuels said anti-Semitism has reached such a level in France that many of the country’s Jews are considering leaving.
“There is certainly talk among members of the (French) community that we should look for a future in Canada or Australia or Miami.”
He said 3000 Jews left France last year out of a total Jewish population of approximately 600,000. And he predicts a further 25,000 will leave if the situation does not improve.
'Jews used as scapegoats by depressed Islamic communities'
In 2004, former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon outraged the French Government when he called on French Jews to escape the country’s rising anti-Semitism by making aliyah.
But it was only after the gruesome murder in February 2006 of Ilan Halimi by an apparently anti-Semitic African-Muslim group that the community’s “panic quotient” rose significantly, Dr. Samuels said.
“People are buying apartments (in Israel), they are looking into aliyah, and they are educating their children if not for aliyah, then at least in Hebrew.”
Dr Samuels said the radicalization of Muslims in Europe was partly a generational problem in that young Muslims, disaffected by poverty and social marginalization, have begun to aggregate their local causes with Islamic jihad.
He also said Jews are being used as scapegoats by depressed Islamic communities.
“The anti-western sloganeering gives these young people encouragement to come out on issues where there is an amalgam between causes: Unemployment, poverty, social isolation on the one hand ... and anti-Semitism on the other.”
Reprinted with permission of Australian Jewish News
