PARIS (AP) — Increasing numbers of French Jews are
leaving for Israel, citing dim economic prospects and a sense of being
caught between an increasingly influential far right and militant Islam.
More than 5,000 are on track to leave this year, the most since after
the Six-Day War in 1967.
Israel, seeing the influx as a success,
is doubling down on its efforts to attract Europeans, planning to
dedicate $29 million over two years to bring in new immigrants.
France
has the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the
United States – about 500,000, according to rough estimates. The country
bans any official documentation of a person’s race, religion or
ethnicity in a law with roots in French shame over its collaboration
with the Nazis.
Since World War II, France has redoubled efforts
to make Jewish families feel welcome. But many say dramatic acts of
anti-Semitism coupled with France’s stagnant economy — which includes a
25 percent youth unemployment rate, compared with 11 percent in Israel —
make a hard choice easier.
Laurie Levy, 26, left in 2013. A
native of the southern city of Toulouse, her departure came after
attacks by a French-born Islamic radical on a Jewish school and soldiers
left seven people dead, including three children and a rabbi. She has
given up on a career in French law and left behind her parents and
siblings.
In Tel Aviv, she no longer feels the need to hide the
Star of David she wears around her neck. But there are other concerns:
Her parents are unlikely to uproot themselves and she worries about
their future back in France. They, in turn, worry about her, living
alone in a different country.
"Life is beautiful here. You work.
You go to the beach. You see your friends. You’re not afraid," said
Levy, who now works at an Israeli design firm. "The irony is that I am
more concerned about them than they are about me."
That she was
able to switch fields and find a job is a demonstration of Israel’s
economic allure. The country annually welcomes 1,000 French youths for a
year abroad and 70 percent of them decide to stay in Israel, according
to Ariel Kandel, who runs the Jewish Agency for Israel in Paris.
The
agency, which works closely with the Israeli government, aims to
strengthen ties between Jews in the diaspora and Israel and spends tens
of millions of dollars each year to bring Jews to Israel permanently.
The $29 million in new spending targets European Jews and another $8
million will help them resettle.
The Jewish Agency cites an influx
of immigrants from France and Ukraine, which has been fighting with
separatists and seen some anti-Semitic leaflets distributed amid
increasing tensions with Russia.
France doesn’t pose such a
dramatic danger. Its economy is stagnant and joblessness is high, but
France has among the world’s strongest social safety nets and highest
standards of living.
"Never would anyone have thought there would come a time when Israel would be more attractive than
France," Kandel said.
The
number of people obtaining French citizenship is down about 45 percent
from a high in 2010 and the general mood among French of all faiths is
one of deepening pessimism.
French Jews say they have the added
burden of watching the rise of an increasingly militant Islam and a
revitalized far right. In May, on the eve of Europe-wide elections that
saw the National Front party — whose founder has been repeatedly
convicted of anti-Semitism — sweep into first place in France, a gunman
attacked a Jewish museum in Belgium. The suspect arrested was a
Frenchman who authorities say recently returned from fighting with
Islamic extremists in Syria.
"They are finding themselves between the extreme right of Europe and the radical Islam of
Europe," said Kandel.
The
number of French Jews migrating to Israel has been around 2,000
annually since the mid-1990s, decreasing from a peak of 5,292 after the
1967 Six-Day War. At the current rate, the Jewish Agency for Israel says
French migration appears set to surpass that peak.
The French government is aware of the increase in departures, Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal
said.
"Emigration is an individual choice and it’s not our place to comment," he said.
Jewish
Agency head Natan Sharansky expects the French number to top out at
over 5,000 this year. That would be about 1 percent of France’s total
Jewish population, and compares with 3,300 in 2013 and 1,900 in 2012.
With
the French economy flat and one in four youths unemployed, the
immigration to Israel fits with "a trend in France of young people
migrating and trying to find opportunity elsewhere," he said.
David
Kadoch is among those on the cusp of departure. Born in a Paris suburb,
the married father of two will be joining his two brothers in Israel in
August.
A network administrator, he’s confident that his skills will
translate well in his new home even though he speaks what he laughingly
describes as "Biblical Hebrew."
"People laugh when I speak Hebrew. I can make myself understood more or less, but I lack any
grammar," he said.
Kadoch
cited a combination of economic, social and spiritual factors for
leaving, including concerns about the future for his two daughters, ages
1 and 3, if Europe returns to its dark past.
"There is a rise in
anti-Semitism, there’s a difficult social climate, there’s a horrid
economy," he said of his native land. "From one side and the other, you
have people who are hostile to Jews, for completely divergent reasons.
And I don’t see how, in this context, history can fail to repeat
itself."
He acknowledged that Israel’s security situation can
appear more precarious than that of France, but emphasized that for him,
there’s a compelling difference.
"The security of Israel at least
is handled by people who have the same interests as we do," he said.
"That is not necessarily the case in other countries of the world."
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Goldenberg
reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer George Jahn in Vienna
and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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