French Israelis were as saddened over the Paris attacks as Americans were about 9/11, but

[King_David]

, but they weren’t surprised at all.

In the wake of Friday’s horrific murders in a Paris kosher supermarket on the heels of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the Telegraph dramatically proclaimed: “Anti-Semitism in France: the Exodus has begun.”

It’s an inaccurate headline. The exodus of French citizens who no longer feel safe living openly and freely as Jews in the homes and neighborhoods where they grew up hasn’t simply “begun.” It’s well underway.

Israelis who live in my city know this well - it’s happening on our doorstep. Over the past two decades, I’ve watched a parade of French Jews make the move into my Tel Aviv suburb of Ra’anana and become my friends and neighbors. What began as a trickle in the 1990s is now a flood. In my daughter’s fifth-grade class this year, three new children arrived - all French. They were among the 7,000 French Jews who uprooted their lives and moved to Israel in 2014 -- more than double the number who came the previous year.

After this traumatic Friday - when Jews lost their lives simply because they were in a kosher supermarket, when Jewish life shut down and Jews huddled in their homes in fear, and when Grand Synagogue in Paris closed its doors on Shabbat for the first time since World War II - I can only imagine how many French children will be joining them for sixth grade.


http://www.haaretz.com/mobile/.premium-1.636348?v=1FC9331C9B2A60B989BA4455EC102DB2

[oberliner]

1. Do you have more info on the Jewish community in France?

Do they tend more towards the religious or secular?

[King_David]

2. I'm not sure but from Wikipedia

Today, French Jews are mostly Sephardi and Mizrahi who came from North Africa and the Mediterranean region and span a range of religious affiliations, from the ultra-Orthodox Haredi communities to the large segment of Jews who are entirely secular.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France

[oberliner]

3. My sense is : mostly secular with growing ultra-orthodox population

But I don't have any data to back that up.

[sabbat hunter]

4. probably accurate

the Ultra-orthodox tend to have large families, the secular ones smaller ones.

[Mosby]

5. the biggest denomination by far is modern orthodox

[oberliner]

6. But do they outnumber secular/non-practicing Jews?

Do you have any links to some survey data on that subject?

[Mosby]

7. this is the only thing i can find

http://www.eurojewcong.org/communities/france.html

[oberliner]

8. I found this

Not sure how accurate or up to date it is though:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html