The Paris attacks shocked France to its core, plunging the country into a sense of vulnerability felt most acutely in the Jewish community.
The nation’s response to it reflected a potent mix of emotions combining fear, anger, patriotism and defiance. The atrocities unleashed unprecedented mass displays of unity among France’s multiracial and religiously diverse population.
However, while much of the country continues to engage in profound soul-searching and fevered debate many French Jews appeared to have already identified a very definite course of action to take – leave.
Last year some 7,000 French Jews emigrated
, more than twice the figure of 2013. Many cited a fear of rising antisemitism as the main reason and chose Israel as their destination.
For many Jews the Kosher supermarket attack, in which four people died, transformed an unnerving perception of antisemitism into a terrifying and inescapable reality. Now the emigration trend is expected to accelerate.
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