French Jews feel protected by Israel
been so scared but also never so happy to be here.”
“In France, it feels very different because you are threatened as a minority and not protected by the government, but I guess in Israel, we are ready to accept the violence,” said Rahmani, a former lawyer who works to connect European immigrants to employers in Israel.
In recent years, this city of 80,000 has become a magnet for highly educated French Jews seeking to escape rising antiSemitism and bad economic times.
Nearly 2,000 have come here since 2005, drawn by good schools, cultural opportunities and success in establishing small businesses, ranging from law and medical practices to patisseries stocked with eclairs.
France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish population — about 500,000 — has become the largest source of emigrants to Israel.
Since last January, more than 6,000 French Jews moved to Israel, up from 3,200 in 2013, according to Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.
The spike in French Jewish emigration is the result of what the community here sees as France’s inability or unwillingness to address Arab-Jewish tensions that have pushed many Jewish families to enroll their children in private French schools.
In 2012, a French-born Muslim of Algerian descent killed a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse in what he claimed was an act of retribution for Israeli killings of Palestinian children.
Last week’s first attack in Ra’anana was by a Palestinian man who approached a crowded bus station and stabbed an Israeli man. French residents were among those who encircled the assailant and kicked him on the ground before police arrived at the scene.
In the second attack, a Palestinian stabbed four Israelis sitting at a cafe.
The attacks have prompted many French residents to turn to one another for help. Over the past week, Whatsapp and Facebook groups have been filled with conversations on how to deal with the stress and explain the violence to their children.
Ariel Simony, a child psychologist, offered free counseling for children and their families and has made his services available on French-language Facebook pages, answering questions such as “What do I tell my 17-year-old son who wants to buy a knife?”
“It is important for the parents to understand that they need to be watchful and always age-appropriate so as to avoid paranoia, which may stay in their subconscious,” Simony said.