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Anti-Semitism Rising in France
Eva Cahen
Correspondent
On Wednesday, French religious leaders and officials, including four former prime ministers, gathered for an ecumenical prayer service in a Paris synagogue in solidarity with Rabbi Gabriel Farhi, who was stabbed last week by an intruder shouting, "God is Great" in Arabic.
Jean-Yves Camus, a political scientist and spokesman for the European Jewish Congress, said the aggression "demonstrates that the series of anti-Semitic acts which peaked between autumn 2001 and spring 2002, and which decreased after the presidential elections, are on the rise again."
The attack came as officials criticized administrators from a Paris university who last month voted to end research and educational exchanges with universities in Israel to show support for the Palestinian Intifada.
Menachem Gourary, the Jewish Agency's representative for France and Mediterranean Europe, said the number of French citizens migrating to Israel rose to 2,566 last year, more than twice the 1,156 total for 2001. Indications from current applications were that the higher rate would continue this year.
"French Jews move to Israel for many reasons, including family and education for their children," said Gourary, "but one of the reasons they name sometimes is the rise of anti-Semitism."
Camus called on the government to offer a firm response to the stabbing. The assailant, who was wearing a motorcycle helmet when he attacked Rabbi Farhi at his synagogue, has not been caught.
Rabbi Farhi, a leader of the Liberal Jewish Movement of France, "is a symbol of what extremists everywhere hate: openness of spirit, involvement in inter-religious dialogue, support for Israel, but also the acceptance of Palestinian rights to their own nation," said Camus.
On Monday, the rabbi's car was burned in his parking garage.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent a message that was read at the ceremony, urging "people of all faiths to stand together in rejection of violence."
Lionel Jospin, Alain Juppe, Edouard Balladur and Laurent Fabius, all former French prime ministers, attended the ceremony.
President Jacques Chirac also condemned the stabbing.
The motion to break academic ties with Israel at the University of Paris VI brought criticism from UNESCO, which said in a statement on Wednesday that the university's boycott would work against the goal of peace and understanding through education.
According to Camus, the university's motion was a "result of pressure from professors and students belonging to the extreme left who support the radical wing of the Palestinian movement. It is a stupid decision."
On Monday, the Jewish Students Union of France held a rally in front of the university that drew hundreds of supporters, including officials and politicians, to demonstrate against the boycott.
Jean Kahn, a prominent French Jewish leader, interviewed on Radio Classique on Thursday, said he was worried about the increase of violent anti-Semitic acts even though he felt that most of the French population, including France's Muslims, was not anti-Jewish.
France has a population of some 600,000 Jews but also 5 million Muslims, mostly immigrants from North African Arab nations.
Last year, a wave of anti-Jewish aggressions that included vandalism in Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and schools also raised an outcry against growing anti-Semitism in France.
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