A group of young French Jews arrives at Ben-Gurion Airport in April 2014, waving their new Israeli ID cards. (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The Jews of France were again the target of a potentially deadly anti-Semitic attack. Due to the growing danger, a record number of Jews continue to make Aliyah.
A kosher restaurant packed with diners was attacked by Muslim anti-Semites in Paris on Sunday, Yeshiva World News reports.
The diners were brutally interrupted when a firebomb was thrown at the restaurant. The explosion created mayhem.
No one was injured by the firebomb. However, a number of people were treated for shock.
There are reports that the assailants were hanging around the vicinity of the restaurant before the attack, taunting the Jews who were entering the restaurant.
The restaurant door was reportedly made of tempered glass, a factor which may have saved the clients inside the eatery from further harm.
Police were called in and they examined security camera footage as part of the investigation, YWN reports.
The restaurant is a known kosher establishment that serves religiously observant Jews in the area.
A Sharp Spike in European Anti-Semitism
Europe has seen a surge in anti-Semitic attacks throughout the continent, and the situation in France in particular is extremely dire.
A report released by the Anti-Defamation League last week states that Jewish people and institutions in the Diaspora were targeted for violence, threats and vicious lies this past summer, all under the pretext of outrage over Operation Protective Edge.
The Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), citing figures compiled by the French Interior Ministry, reported that a total of 529 anti-Semitic acts were registered throughout July, as opposed to 276 during the same period last year. The incidents, which include violence against individuals, arson and vandalism, “exacerbate the growing unease that oppresses Jews in France each day and overshadows their future”, CRIF said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in the U.K., the Community Security Trust (CST) anti-Semitism watchdog reported 302 anti-Jewish incidents in July, representing a staggering 400-percent increase over the same month last year.
A World Zionist Organization study in August found that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the world jumped by 383 percent in July as compared to the same month the previous year, with Europe showing a 436-percent increase.
Aliyah from France has more than doubled, from 2,650 in the Jewish year of 5773 (roughly Sept. 2012-Sept. 2013) to approximately 6,000 in 5774, marking the first time in history that more immigrants arrived from France than from any other country. The Jewish Agency states that the 125-percent increase is due, in part, to new programs geared to young French Jews as well as joint efforts to ease the immigration and absorption process.
Another primary catalyst in the spike in aliyah from France is the rabid anti-Semitism there. A report from 2013 authored by Prof. Dina Porat of Tel Aviv University shows that the highest number of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe during 2013 occurred in France. French Jews have expressed an intensified feeling that personal safety and communal well-being have been jeopardized, while 73 percent attribute the surge in violence to radical Islam.
Author: United with Israel Staff
What do you think the solution is to this depraved reality? Many say there can be no doubt – all Jews should come to Israel, their rightful homeland.