‘Almost all’ Jewish families in France discussing a move to Israel – report

CRIF Executive Director Robert Ejnes says that wherever Jews live in the country, they are feeling insecure.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Almost all Jewish families in France are discussing the possibility of moving to Israel due to the terrible antisemitism they have been experiencing and the lack of a firm response from the authorities, a leading Jewish communal figure told Ynet on Sunday.

Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) Executive Director Robert Ejnes blamed the Swords of Iron war for the sharp deterioration in the Jewish community’s sense of safety.

“There is a very strong rise in antisemitism since October 7 [2023],” Ejnes said. “The extreme left has made Gaza a major political argument in their campaigns. And they’re really pushing for the hate of Israel — and by the way, the hate of the Jews.”

“Wherever they live, I guess, the Jewish population is feeling insecure today in the French environment,” he said, noting that as a result, “I don’t know a family that is not speaking about it now,” referring to emigration to the Jewish state.

They may not actually make the move, he said, because it’s “a very difficult” one, and many still “want to believe in France as a country,” considering that Jews have lived there for “more than 2,000 years.”

“There is a very strong French feeling among the Jewish community,” he added.

Ejnes also condemned the government for playing a role in the rise of anti-Jewish hatred, due most recently to President Emmanuel Macron’s July declaration that France will recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly next month.

Ejnes noted that when Macron first mentioned the possibility three months ago, he attached conditions such as the release of the 50 hostages Hamas is still holding captive, that Hamas would have no future role in governing Palestinians, and that the incipient state should be demilitarized.

No such prerequisites were included when the final decision was made, however, “and this is what we’re mad at,” Ejnes said. “Because it’s not normal, and we cannot understand the reason he would … recognize the state of Palestine without conditions.”

As the foremost representatives of the Jewish community, CRIF’s leaders had spoken to Macron directly about it, “but he wouldn’t budge from this position.”

Antisemitism in France is not new, with a survey by the American Jewish Committee reporting in 2021, well before the Hamas-Israel war, that 70% of French Jews have experienced antisemitism at least once, and two-thirds felt they are living in the shadow of severe antisemitism.

But the Anti-Defamation League reported last year that the war caused a huge jump in hate crimes, as the number of antisemitic attacks increased from 436 in 2022 to 1,676 in 2023, with 74% of the attacks taking place after Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel.

In 2024, the numbers dropped slightly to 1,570 antisemitic acts, according to the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France.

The group called it “alarming” that over 10% of the attacks included physical violence.

There is a clear upward trend in this category, as physical assaults accounted for 85 of the attacks in 2024, but this was almost double the 2023 figure.

Last July, the Knesset’s Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs heard from French Chief Rabbi Moshe Sebbag that Jews prefer to conceal their identity in public.

He also said in a Jerusalem Post interview that “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.”