France: “All Jews should move to Israel. France is not our home anymore. "

Via The Jerusalem Post:

As antisemitism continues to rise in France, emphasis is now being put on encouraging Jewish students to study in Israel after school.

This week, 1000 students from Jewish schools in France arrived as part of "Bac Bleu Blanc" (graduates in Blue and White), a project initiated and organized by the Jewish Agency's educational arm Israel Experience. […]

Paul Fitoussi, director of the Yavne school in Marseille, stressed: “All Jews should move to Israel. France is not our home anymore. The younger generation must do this. My two daughters immigrated to Israel and learn in Beersheba, and I am encouraging my third daughter to do the same.”

Yoni Elimelech, deputy director of the Otzar Torah School in Paris’s 13th District, echoed those sentiments. “While this may sound strange, for us the fact that we encourage our guys to immigrate to Israel is perfectly natural.

I think every 18-year-old [Jewish] boy or girl living in France should immigrate to Israel.”

Fitoussi and Elimelech, who are both on the tour with the students, described the rise of antisemitism in France. “Because of the increased antisemitic attacks,” Fitoussi said that he decided “not to allow students to eat or have sports classes outside of school building.

“Often, stones are thrown at students or they yell slurs like ‘dirty Jews’ towards them,” he said.

Elimelech added that only last week, his school received a transfer student from a public school in the 19th district “due to antisemitic attacks” the child had to endure. […]

Audrey T, of Ort Marseille Jewish School, said that last September she was sitting with a friend on a bench in front of their school when suddenly three thugs grabbed him by the hair.

“They hit him, and then they started beating him,” she said.

In shock by the whole situation, she and another person that was there just froze. Finally, one of the teachers came and helped them. Their complaint to the police was ignored.

Since then, Audrey said that “I am afraid every time I get onto a bus or if I’m sitting in a park. I’m afraid to also be attacked like that. In the past, I didn’t think so much about my Jewish identity but since [last September], I think about it a lot.”

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