The savage murder last week of an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in Paris sent shockwaves throughout the French Jewish community, where anti-Semitism and deadly attacks by radical Islamists have been on the rise. Aliyah from France has been climbing.
Mireille Knoll was stabbed 11 times in her apartment before it was set on fire last Friday. She is the 11th murdered victim of anti-Semitism in France since the kidnapping, torture and killing of Ilan Halimi, 24, in 2006.
In this video, Knoll’s son and Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, director of the American Jewish Committee in Paris, discuss the reaction of the French Jewish community and the issue of Muslim radicalization in that country, which has suffered several mass terror attacks over the past few years.
Tens of thousands of French Jews have immigrated to Israel in recent years. Indeed, Knoll’s granddaughter, Noa Goldfarb, made Aliyah 20 years ago, telling reporters that she saw no future for Jews in her native country.