Some people forget it too often: for French Jews, the attack against the Hyper Cacher, two days after the killing in Charlie Hebdo, was all the more traumatic as it was part of a long series of anti-Semitic attacks which had left them bruised and worried about society’s real awareness of this danger. Before this tragedy, there were the assassinations of Sarah Halimi in 2017 and Mireille Knoll in 2018, the massacre carried out by Mohammed Merah at the Ozar-Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and, in 2006, the kidnapping, torture and the murder of Ilan Halimi whose motivations were clearly anti-Semitic.
When we line them up end to end, we understand the feelings of vulnerability, anguish and sometimes great loneliness felt by French Jews, and their need to feel heard, reassured and supported by the entire French community. This partly explains the massive departure of them to Israel where the Jewish Agency is responsible for attracting Jews from all over the world. The “aliyah” (literally “ascension”) have never been as numerous as in 2015 even if it is estimated that around 40% returned to France during the 2010s, disappointed by the welcome on site. Since October 7, 2023, things have changed a little. After the horror of the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas in Israel, followed the horror of the incessant Israeli bombings on Gaza, and the Jews of France initially felt little supported in their pain, notably by the extreme left which refused to qualify as “terrorists” the attack of October 7, then singled out because too often associated with the policy of the Israeli government.
Anti-Semitic acts have certainly increased, which must be tirelessly condemned, but, overall, when we know that France hosts the largest Jewish and Muslim communities in Europe, society has stood firm, hatred has not taken over, unlike what Merah, Kouachi and other Coulibaly hoped for. We owe this state of affairs to individual and collective vigilance at all times. Which must never be renounced.
Source: www.liberation.fr
