The one sentence you need to read to understand France’s anti-Semitism crisis

[Behind the Aegis]

You may know, after the attack on the kosher supermarket during the Charlie Hebdo assault, that French Jews have faced discrimination and attacks for years. What you may not know is the scale of France's anti-Semitism problem. This statistic, in Natasha Lehrer's big Guardian feature on anti-Semitism in France, puts it in context:


Half of all racist attacks in France take Jews as their target, even though they number less than 1% of the population.

There are between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews in France, the world's third-largest Jewish community, after the US and Israel. "It changes everything, when you are living every day thinking about your safety and your children's safety," Joanna, a 37 year old Parisian Jew, told Lehrer. And no wonder.

The hate crimes stat isn't perfect. It's taken from a report by Science Po professor Dominic Reynie and from data gathered by French Jewish organization SPCJ; SPCJ works closely with the French Interior Ministry to get an accurate count. The SPCJ data defines attack pretty broadly. It includes violence, attacks or attempted attacks, bombs, defacement, vandalism, remarks, gestures, letters, leaflets, or graffiti. And the data only covers the first seven months of 2014, a narrow window. So using other ways of measuring racist attacks, or longer time periods, might not necessarily return this same statistic.

more: http://www.vox.com/2015/1/15/7552943/france-anti-semitism

[question everything]

1. From Bret Stephens' op-ed in today's WSJ

The problem isn’t the Fifth Republic, in which French Jews have, on the whole, thrived. The problem is the arrival, sooner or later, of the Sixth. Which is why French Jews need to leave sooner rather than later, despite the disruption and risk, while the exits are not blocked and the way is still open.

Perhaps inadvertently, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls made the basic point last week when he told his Parliament that “history has taught us that the awakening of anti-Semitism is a symptom of a crisis for democracy and of a crisis for the Republic.” Very true, but if anti-Semitism is the symptom of the crisis, then ringing Jewish schools, synagogues, groceries and neighborhoods with gendarmes is not its cure. Necessity is proof of insufficiency.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/bret-stephens-packing-time-for-frances-jews-1421712871