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 Pacific wrote:
Unfortunately, it seems that even in modern societies the same propencities remain in terms of how we function as collective groups; like the Romanies, the lack of assimilation by Jewish people into the parent culture they inhabit means that they are often the first target once times of economic hardship are encountered. ?

The Jews of 1930's Germany were the most assimilated Jewish population ever. Most considered themselves German and Jewish second.

It didn't save them.

The Jewish emigration rate tends to be a reasonably good yardstick by which to judge the rise of xenophobia in a country. The emigration to Israel from France has held steady at about 800-2000 per year since 1965 through to about 2012. But in 2013? That went up to 3,000. In 2014? About 7,000 Jews left France for Israel. Last year, there were about 50,000 official enquiries from Jews in France asking about the circumstances surrounding the right of return. Crunching the number of queries compared to the number of emigrations over the last year few years, it's expected that around 15,000 Jews will leave France for Israel this year, according to the Jewish Agency. Many others still are heading to London and America, to the point where new synagogues are actually being established with entirely French congregations.

According to practically all recent polls, the majority of Jews (about 80%) no longer feel safe in France. The extreme left and right are on the rise, and with rising numbers of anti-semitic immigrants from the Middle-East, and a surge in the number of racist attacks (from rapes to murder to people spitting on them in the street), there is a feeling beginning to set in that France is no longer a place to bring up your children if you wish to pass on your Jewish heritage.

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:

Yeah, you are considered Jew only if your mother was Jew, regardless of what your father was.

The Liberals and Reforms would disagree.

I do not know, but as a French guy whose mother is Jewish, and who knows a bunch of other people with at least Jewish origins, I know no-one who feels threatened or even considered going to live in Israel. But I may be biased as only one of my uncle is a practicing Jew, and all the others are agnostic or atheists as far as I can tell.

That's a fair enough empirical stance to take. It could be that your family is fortunate enough to live in a good area though, as the emigration statistics alone would seem to indicate that this is more than just a scare story.

 Kilkrazy wrote:


Surely though the point of this whole situation is that Jews should not feel it necessary to move to Israel for their security and peace of mind? They should be as safe and happy in their own countries as anyone else.

Speaking as someone who currently qualifies, the knowledge that the Right of Return exists is a comfort on the offchance everything ever goes tits up.

squidhills wrote:

The article tries to make the argument that Europe hates all the Jews, when it really looks like France is the only country with a noticeable rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes.

Funny you should say that. Apparently the emigration rate from Eastern Europe has skyrocketed as well.

As for Poland and Germany....well, there aren't really that many Jews left any more to emigrate.