Being Jewish in France Was Harder Thirty Years Ago, New Survey Shows

Image by Getty Images
A majority of respondents in a French survey on racism said that being Jewish is easier today in France than it was 30 years ago but being Muslim has become more difficult.
In the survey of 1,003 French adults published Monday, 70 percent of respondents said that being Jewish is easier today in France than in 1983 and 61 percent said that being Muslim is more difficult.
Racist attacks on French Jews increased by 58 percent in 2012 from the previous year to 614, according to the community’s security’s service, SPCJ. Of that figure, 96 attacks were physical assaults.
Approximately 14 percent of the total attacks happened during the 10 days that followed the slaying of four Jews at a Toulouse Jewish school by a Muslim extremist on March 19, 2012.
Some 500,000 Jews live in France.
Hate crimes against Muslims — who number at least 2.1 million in France, according to INED, the country’s national institute of demographic studies — increased by 30 percent in 2012 to a total of 201, according to a report by France’s national consultative commission on human rights, or CNCDH. The commission documented 53 physical “actions” against Muslims in 2012.
Seventy percent of respondents said anti-racism bodies and agencies were “not effective” and 86 percent said they were “not interested” in their activities, said the France-based International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, or LICRA, which commissioned the survey carried out by the OpinionWay polling firm.
Still, approximately 75 percent of respondents said that racism was “dangerous.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 3
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 4
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jill Sobule, pop star who also composed songs for a new ‘Yentl,’ dies at 66
-
Yiddish צווישן טרער און מוט — צווישן געדענקען און אומאָפּהענגיקייטBetween tears and courage — between memory and resilience
הירהורים צום 77סטן געבוירן־טאָג פֿון מדינת־ישׂראל
-
Opinion Ireland’s prime minister gave condolences for Hitler’s death — here’s why that’s a contemporary problem
-
Fast Forward The fires in Israel are under control — but debate is raging over their cause
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.