The French Jewish community has just marked the shloshim, the thirty days of mourning, following the attack on a kosher market in Paris that left four Jews dead. The shop remains shuttered and despite the government’s professed desire to be a safe haven for Jews, the Jews are actively seeking new homes.
The government has deployed 10,000 troops to protect Jewish institutions and after a million strong rally gathered in Paris to decry hate crimes, but anti-Semitism still exists.
In an act that may be considered insignificant, an ad appeared last week on a Paris based job search website, Graphic-Jobs.com, for NSL Studios, and among the job requirements was a request that “if possible, the applicant not be Jewish”. LeInrocks.com said that in a call to NSL Studio while the job ad was still online, a staff member told its reporters that the phrase “if possible not Jewish” had been included because of the company’s erratic work schedules. “So we wanted someone who does not have these cultural or religious concerns,” the news site quoted the company as saying. Shortly after the inquiry, an announcement was tweeted by the company saying a hacker had changed their ad.
Anti-Semitism at the workplace is disturbing, but another occurrence last week was even more disturbing. On Tuesday, a man wielding an 8-in. knife lunged at a group of soldiers guarding the Jewish Community Center in the southern French city of Nice, wounding at least two of them. He then fled on foot and was caught by police. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi said on television the man was carrying an identity card with the name Moussa Coulibaly. That is the same family name — common in Mali — as Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked the supermarket on Jan. 9. Coulibaly spoke of his hatred of France, Jews, the police and military.
There is no question that anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and France, with a growing population of Moslems, has been especially hard hit. French Jews are aware of the problem and, despite feeling a strong connection to France, are leaving. Israel is one location that appeals to the Jews of France . In 2012, it jumped from a steady annual average of 2,000, to 3,000 French Olim. In 20,13, that number more than doubled and more than 7,000 French Jews made Aliyah, making it the biggest country of origin for olim. Since the attack in Paris, calls to the Jewish Agency’s Paris office have more than tripled, and the agency is predicting that 15,000 French Jews will move to Israel in 2015 according to Avi Mayer, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency. Other destinations of choice for French Jews are Miami, Canada, and other countries in Europe.
France has almost half a million Jews, but a 2010 poll placed the Muslim population at 5-6 million. AT least on a demographic level, the problem is growing.
