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Published on 5 March 2016
Roger Cukierman: "The problem has widespread, but the solutions are absent"
Interview of President of CRIF, published in L'Arche Magazine February 25, 2016
2015 was a very difficult year, what is your assessment today?
Roger Cukierman: It actually started very badly with the attacks of Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher. It continued throughout the year with a series of anti-Semitic attacks equivalent to what we have known in 2014, which was already at a very high level. 2015 ended with the terrible attacks of Bataclan, Paris cafes and the stadium. The government was true to its friendly attitude towards Jews and decided to protect us effectively with police, gendarmes and soldiers outside our synagogues and schools. But the general feeling of French Jews is that they don not have the same freedom of movement as other citizens. Some have decided to leave France, sometimes prefering dangerous destinations, since Israel is not a safe haven. So yes, we face real problems.
Did you see, this year - even though the term is often used - a real "awareness" of the phenomenon, by the authorities and the civil society?
Awareness, yes, but in the field, the problem of public schools, for example, remains. Jewish children are less and less learning in the schools of the Republic. There is much to do to improve the situation. And France is suffering from many problems : the economy, the rise of the right wing... All sorts of worries explain that we are confronted to a complex situation. And more complex for Jews, who are used to be the sentinels of the democracy ... Read more.