Thousands Attend Paris Aliyah Fair Amid Spate of Anti-Semitic Incidents
Thousands of French Jews attended an information fair in Paris about moving to Israel.
Sunday’s fair, organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel in cooperation with the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption and the World Zionist Organization, offered information from representatives of many Israeli organizations and institutions, including government ministries.
The Drancy-based Bureau for National Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, a watchdog group known as BNVCA, has recorded a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in France in recent weeks, including a violent attack on a Jewish teacher and a knife attack on a Paris rabbi and his son.
Immigration to Israel, or aliyah, from France has risen sharply since the beginning of 2014, with 854 new immigrants arriving in January and February compared to 274 during the previous year, according to the Jewish Agency.
Some 3,280 immigrants from France arrived in Israel in 2013, compared to 1,917 in the previous year.
Earlier this month, the French Jewish community’s watchdog organization, SPCJ, released a report that counted 423 anti-Semitic incidents in France in 2013 — a 31 percent decrease from the previous year, but still higher by 8 percent than the number of incidents recorded in 2011.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30