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Published on 27 October 2015
Jews fleeing violence in France find it in Israel
By Shira Rubin, published on USA Today October 19, 2015
Anti-Semitism, long-simmering tensions with France's Arab community and the killing of four Jewish shoppers at a kosher market in January prompted thousands of French Jews to seek safety in Israel.
Many of those emigrants and other French Jews who came earlier find themselves targeted once again. Two random knife attacks by Palestinians a week ago in this normally quiet, tree-lined suburb left members of the French community shaken.
“It was terrifying, and my children need to be careful on the street,” said Sandrine Cohen, owner of a clothing boutique filled with imports from Paris. She moved here with her two children last year from the central Paris neighborhood around Champs-Élysées, where she said it was “always dangerous,” especially for her 16-year-old son, who wears a yarmulke.
Like the rest of Israel, the French community has responded with anxiety to the spate of attacks since last month that has resulted in the deaths of nine Israelis in more than 20 stabbings and 41 Palestinian fatalities.
Despite the attacks, French Jews said they have no regrets about moving to Israel, where they feel more protected. "It’s not like in Paris, which I don’t recognize anymore,” Cohen said. “Here, though, we feel free.”
Lisa Rahmani, who came to Israel five years ago, said the French community has “never been so scared but also never so happy to be here”... Read more.