France: Jews’ situation worst since 1945

Ilan Halimi

The problem is that we have been hearing for years that the fight against antisemitism is a priority - all sorts of organisations etc fight antisemitism but the situation keeps deteriorating, as is acknowledged by Mr Kalifat and his predecessorss Roger Cukierman and Gérard Prasquier.  Jews are leaving France in large numbers.

In an attempt to fight antisemitism, three films have been released in the space of a few weeks: Yvan Attal's comedy about anti-Semitism "They Are Everywhere", Richard Berry's "Tout, Tout de Suite" ("Everything now") a fiction based on the murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006, and Elie Chouraqui's "The Origin of Violence"

JTA reports:

French Jews are experiencing the most difficult situation they have encountered since the end of World War II, the newly-elected president of France’s umbrella of Jewish communities said.

Francis Kalifat, 64, said Sunday that his first priority as president of CRIF is to fight against the anti-Semitism that he said was responsible for the situation he described.

“The fight against anti-Semitism is our main cause because French Jews are in the most difficult situation they have experience since World War II,” Kalifat said during an interview with Radio J shortly after his unanimous election to succeed Roger Cukierman as president.  [...]

His presidency, which will become effective next month, comes at a time of record emigration by Jews from France, partly because of anti-Semitic violence that included hundreds of anti-Semitic incidents annually in recent years, and dozens of physical assaults. Since 2012, attacks on Jewish targets by French Islamists in France and Belgium claimed the lives of 12 people. Last year, roughly 8,000 French Jews left for Israel — the highest number on record for any year, which made France for the second year straight Israel’s largest provider of newcomers.

“I think all of our force needs to be united to fight against this anti-Semitism in all its forms, because we see this new anti-Semitism advancing under the guise of anti-Zionism,” added Kalifat, a businessman and longtime activist for Zionist and Jewish causes who is CRIF’s 11th president.

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