Frightening anti-Semitism in France Jews are not welcome here

Paris Grand Synagogue Rabbi Moshe Sebbag has called on Jews to leave France after the parliamentary elections.

“It is clear today that there is no future for Jews in France. I tell everyone who is young to go to Israel or a more secure country. Many Jewish families previously would not have considered voting for the National Rally, but recently the left party has become anti-Semitic. The Jews are caught in the middle and don’t know who hates them more,” Sebbag told the foreign media.

Sebbag said that the left party supports mass immigration to France. However, many migrants are not ready to become part of French society. The anti-Semitic sentiments are strong among them.

Migrants do not make up the majority of the population in multimillion-dollar France. So why has anti-Semitic sentiment suddenly increased in this country? Even Paris Grand Synagogue Rabbi is forced to urge the Jewish youth of France to leave this country forever. How can such a strange change in attitude towards the Jewish community be explained?

Israeli experts expressed views on this issue with Caliber.Az.

Analyst and journalist Mikhail Gurevich notes that, indeed, Jews all over the world in recent years, and especially since October 7 last year, have observed a surge in anti-Semitism perpetrated by the so-called “new left” party.

“Before the second World War, the representatives of the European right party were usually the main anti-Semitic forces. The German Nazism was the apotheosis. On the contrary, left-wing parties and movements opposed anti-Semitism. Many Jews were professional members of these movements. Today we are witnessing a reverse process, when postcolonial theory, wokism and the new left theory are against Israel, the right of Jews to self-determination, in fact, supporting the attitude towards Israel as a terrorist country that allegedly commits genocide and other terrible actions. Moreover, they extend this attitude not only to Israelis, but to Jews in general. That is, Jews who are not citizens of Israel are deprived of the presumption of innocence; they must prove that they oppose Israel’s actions, do not support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy, etc. That is, they must take an active position, and only in this case they receive forgiveness,” the analyst said.

He noted that this situation is especially worsening in France due to mass migration from countries that were former French colonies.

“People from there today are actively supporting new anti-Semitism, which is combined with anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, the right party has a long history of anti-Semitism, and many Jewish communities, primarily the French one, were and are prejudiced against the French right party, towards the National Rally. Everyone remembers that Marine Le Pen’s father, the founder of this party, was an ardent anti-Semite and made many statements against the Jews. Despite Marine Le Pen is fighting against this, the Jews of France do not trust her much. A lot of people in Israel say that this right turn, which everyone is observing following the results of the recent elections to the European Parliament, of course, nominally stand for Israel and against these pro-Hamas demonstrations, but at any moment these movements can also be directed against Jews,” Gurevich said.

“Of course, Sebbag is entitled to make such a statement. A lot of French Jews have left France over the past decades. The repatriation of French Jews is comparable to the number of Jews repatriating from the post-Soviet countries. In some years, they even outnumbered the Jews who were leaving the former Soviet republics. If there is no threat to physical safety, the Rabbi’s task is to be close to the believers and serve their religious needs. This is not Catholicism. We do not have a strict hierarchy to say that this is the most important Rabbi and he is entitled to dictate something. We should listen to Sebbag’s opinion, and first of all, the French authorities should do this, they should think about where the red line lies, beyond which freedom of speech turns into freedom of violence, provocations, riots and, in fact, hatred towards Jews. To be honest, while watching the news about France, it is difficult to escape the impression that the attempts are regularly made to cross this line,” he noted.

“Why did it happen? Of course, October 7 events had an impact. In this regard, the world press, which primarily shows footage from Gaza, the destruction there, reports from the Ministry of Health, which is fully accountable to Hamas, shows one-sidedness, which leaves its mark. Of course, there is a big flaw in Israeli propaganda here, it is practically unheard today, and the question is, who should do this - the Jews or Israel as a country? I would like to see this mistake to be corrected. In any case, such events are a litmus test - something happened, and we see the consequences. Woke culture, woke activism, postcolonial culture and theory have led to a powerful imbalance, for which not only Jews, but also many residents of Europe and the West as a whole will have to pay. The West will probably have to once again re-understand its values, the concepts of good and evil, re-realize terrorism and struggle, colonialism and the double standards. The call for the destruction of Israel suddenly began to be perceived almost as a natural expression of freedom of speech. This is a strange phenomenon,” he added.

In turn, publicist Alexander Nepomnyashchy noted that, unfortunately, anti-Semitism is a long-standing and almost chronic disease for the French society.

“However, after the second World War, when the scale of the catastrophe was obvious amid the monstrous crimes of the Nazis against Jews, traditional French anti-Semitism greatly subsided. However, during the last three decades it has intensified due to the sharp increase in the number of radical jihadists and related organisations in France, both among migrants and their descendants born in France, who make up a more than noticeable part of modern French society,” Nepomnyashchy noted.

“The scale of persecution, attacks and even murders of Jews has recently become catastrophic in France, as well as in many other Western countries, where big communities of radical jihadists have been created thanks to immigration policy promoted by left-wing parties. All this happened with the connivance of left-wing political movements, whose positions have recently become anti-Israel and anti-Semitic,” he said.

“The traditional anti-Semitism of the French right party has become almost invisible. Moreover, even those French right-wing nationalists who could be classified as rudimentary anti-Semites, do not like the Jews but understand Israel and express sympathy, fully supporting the idea of a national Jewish state. The leaders of the National Front party, which won the recent elections (once considered almost radical and pro-Nazi party), belong to such right-wing representatives. In particular, Marine Le Pen maintains friendly ties with many Israeli right-wing politicians, believing that France has a lot to learn from Israel in terms of the ability to defend its national interests,” the expert said.

At the same time, the expert noted that the high probability of the current clashes escalating into a full-scale civil war is felt in France more than ever.

“In this situation, the Jews may indeed be one of the main victims. We should understand the concerns voiced by Rabbi Sebbag. As a convinced Zionist, that is, a person who believes that the era of two thousand years of Jewish wandering throughout Europe is over. Now the Jews have their national state, in which they should have their future. I believe that the most correct thing for the Jewish youth of France is to return to Israel,” he added.