Portugal

The issues of immigration and integration that have created problems in France, Italy, Holland and other European countries have had less of an impact in Portugal.

The country has a much lower immigrant population - around three per cent of the total. Only about one in 500 to 1,000 people in Portugal is Muslim, and most of those have come from the former colonies of Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Antisemitism, of the kind found in France and elsewhere, is virtually non-existent.

The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have provoked a huge outpouring of solidarity and empathy in Portugal, and special gatherings were organised in Lisbon and other cities.

No separate solidarity actions have been organised by the small Jewish communities in Lisbon and Porto, however, and no special security measures have been taken.

Richard Zimler

Spain

The Spanish Jewish community has increased security patrols in the wake of the attack in Paris.

David Hatchwell Altaras, president of the Madrid Jewish community, said: "We are clearly concerned because there are many Islamic fundamentalists all over Europe, including Spain.

"The Spanish authorities are extremely co-operative."

Rabbi Shalom Ber Binshtock, the Chabad rabbi in Valencia, said the community was being more careful in the wake of the attacks, but added: "We're not going to go and hide now."

A spokeswoman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain (FCJE) confirmed that there were increased security measures outside Spanish synagogues last Friday. She called on European leaders to "cut off the head of the snake" of Islamist terrorism, at its source in the Middle East.

Sandy Rashty

France

Five thousand police and soldiers are being deployed around Jewish schools and other Jewish locations.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the community's safety is one of his government's top priorities after the last week's jihadist killings. Six out of the 17 victims were Jewish. Another victim, 26-year-old policewoman Clarissa Jean-Philippe, is thought to have been shot by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly as he was attempting to attack a Jewish school in southern Paris.

While the main Jewish community leaders, including Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia, have praised the government's determination, most French Jews do not feel reassured. Headteachers at Jewish schools see the police and army deployment as an emergency measure and doubt it will last for any length of time.

Worshippers at synagogues point to the fact that the police authorities in Paris and elsewhere requested many shut down throughout Shabbat last Friday and Saturday, and that other synagogues were left unprotected.

The chairman of a synagogue in Central Paris told me: "We saw a police patrol on Friday evening, as the service was already over, and that was it for 24 hours. I believe the police were overstretched and could not wage war on two fronts simultaneously: chasing terrorists and ensuring the security of their potential victims."

Things may improve under a comprehensive public safety law to be passed shortly which is being touted as the French equivalent of the American Patriot Act passed after 9/11.

But for such a law to be effective, France needs to change its priorities. For years, France has put social security ahead of actual security. In 2014, it spent 31.9 per cent of its national wealth on social programmes, against an OECD average of 21.6 per cent. National defence and domestic security spending amounted to less than 10 per cent.

French Jews are also worried about the political consequences of last week's killings. The spirit of "national unity" that culminated with mass rallies throughout France may not last, and may not even have been particularly unified. On the one hand, very few Muslims or non-European citizens took part in the marches, making it seem as if the country is now polarising along ethnic and cultural lines.

On the other hand, the marchers were in the main focusing on the massacre at Charlie Hebdo and turning the anti-Jewish killings into a side issue.

A latent crisis even surrounded the presence of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu at the march in Paris.

According to unconfirmed reports, President Francois Hollande and the French Foreign Office did not wish him to come, and, once it was clear he was coming, made sure to invite Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well.

While Mr Hollande, Prime Minister Valls and former president Nicolas Sarkozy attended a memorial service at the Paris Great Synagogue with Mr Netanyahu, they left when he delivered a speech of condolence.

The fact that Mr Netanyahu mentioned the growing number of French Jews who are emigrating to Israel was criticized by French politicians and the media.

Mr Valls, who is seen as the most pro-Israel member of the Hollande administration insisted that "France needs its Jews" and "would not be fully France without them".

Nonetheless, the events of last week are more likely to accelerate migration plans for many French Jews.

Michel Gurfinkiel

sweden

Following the Paris attacks, Jews in Sweden are worried about the growing Islamist threat and concerned that the Swedish media, politicians and public are not taking antisemitism seriously.

"I would have liked to see more indignation in Sweden that the terrorists chose a Jewish target in Paris," said Willy Silberstein, president of the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism.

"Instead, there has been barely a mention of antisemitism in the Swedish press and while I think very few support the terrorists' actions, I worry that Swedes see the event at the Paris kosher store as some kind of consequence of the Middle East conflict instead of seeing it for what it was: an act motivated by pure Jew-hatred."

Lena Posner-Körösi, president of the Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, said many members have contacted her, particularly parents whose children attend the Jewish school in Stockholm, concerned about security.

"This time our members' concerns are definitely justifiable," she said. "Immediately after the attack in Paris, police officers were stationed outside the main mosque in Stockholm during Friday prayers, but at Stockholm's Great Synagogue there were just patrolling officers on Shabbat.

"Swedes, like the rest of the world, have rightly reacted with horror at the attack on Charlie Hebdo. At the same time, in countries like France, Germany and England I've noted that there have also been condemnations of the terrorists' antisemitic attack. I'm still waiting for such a reaction in Sweden."

Politicians from the previous centre-right coalition government have been in touch with Ms Posner-Körösi, she said, but the current Social Democrat-Green Party government "is silent".

"The focus is on Islamophobia and apparently it is hard to entertain two thoughts at the same time, to acknowledge that Jews face real threats. I also think there is an assumption that the kind of thing that happened in Paris could not possibly take place here."

Nathalie Rothschild

Germany

Shaken by the twin terror attacks in France, Jews in Germany were among the tens of thousands who demonstrated nationwide this weekend to show solidarity with the victims.

With the attacks by home-grown jihadists, "a terrible nightmare has become reality for all of France but also for all of us," said the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

Expressing his condolences to the victims and their families, council president Josef Schuster warned against any diminution of freedoms. "That would give free rein to the terrorists," he said.

Members of Berlin's Jewish community council appealed on Monday to fellow Jews not to give up on life in Europe.

"I understand the fears and don't wish to play down the facts," said council member Micha Guttmann, who had spoken to dozens of community members since Friday. "But we can't let the crimes of fanatic terrorists destroy the positive developments in Jewish life in Berlin in recent years. That would give the terrorists a posthumous victory; they want to destroy Jewish life around the world, including in Germany."

Meanwhile, security reportedly was tighter at religious and media institutions in Berlin. Though the Jewish community routinely declines to comment on security measures, insiders noted that some organisations were on a higher state of alert.

Several newspapers had reprinted images from Charlie Hebdo in their Thursday editions. One of them, the Hamburger Morgenpost, became the target of an arson attack by unknown perpetrators in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A spokesperson for the Federal Criminal Police office said it was regularly in contact with institutions regarding their security needs, but that it could not comment on specific measures.

At Sunday's demonstrations in Berlin, some participants held up signs saying "Je suis Charlie," the words superimposed on an image of the yellow star.

At the French Embassy on Pariser Platz, demonstrators put up posters with the names of all the victims from the attacks. Other non-Jewish demonstrators waved Israeli flags or held up signs in solidarity with the supermarket victims.

German Green Party MP Volker Beck, president of the German-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group, carried a sign saying "Je suis Charlie, Je suis Ahmed, Je suis Jude," including a reference to Muslim police officer Ahmed Merabet, killed outside the Charlie Hebdo offices.

Toby Axelrod

Italy

Last Friday, Sara was cooking lemon chicken for Shabbat in her two-bedroom apartment not far from the Jewish neighbourhood in Milan while half listening to the television news.

When the anchorwoman broke the news of a terrorist taking hostages at a kosher supermarket, her spirits sank.

"When I had first heard about the attack at the paper, my first thought had been to what happened in Toulouse in 2012. But then Jews were directly targeted again" she said.

Anguish, pain and hours planted in front of the TV: this was the reaction of Italian Jews as events unfolded.

The following day, regular services were held as normal and on Sunday, the Great Synagogue in Rome hosted a special celebration for the golden wedding of the Holocaust survivor Sami Modiano and his wife Selma, where the whole community gathered. It was considered the best response to terror.

"Italian police forces are doing an exceptional job to protect Jewish sites. Synagogues and offices are guarded 24/7," the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) Renzo Gattegna said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "We co-operate closely with the authorities. Italian Jews are deeply affected and alarmed, but there is no panic."

"We've seen many placards reading 'Je suis Charlie', we hope to see as many reading 'Je suis juif'" said Walker Meghnagi, the president of the Jewish Community of Milan. He was voicing a feeling common among Italian Jews -that as important as the sympathy and solidarity expressed towards Charlie Hebdo victims have been, why have the same people seemed less willing to express similar feelings towards Jews.

Mr Meghnagi also appealed to the leaders of the Italian Muslim community to condemn the attack against the kosher supermarket without any ambiguity. He made the plea after a rally was organised by the Muslim community in Milan "where we heard the cry of solidarity towards the journalists but not towards the Jews killed only because they were Jews."

The same message was expressed in a Facebook post by Emanuele Fiano, a Jewish MP and the son of a Holocaust survivor.

Referring to three of the supermarket victims, he said: "We are all Yoav, Philippe and Francois-Michel: this is our destiny, our pride and our honour. And we are also, if you don't mind, Charlie: this is our free choice and our responsibility."

In a stirring piece in Jewish newspaper Pagine Ebraiche, Editor-in-Chief Guido Vitale wrote: "Strong emotions sometimes create an illusionary sense of unity, but what happened in Paris forces everyone to make a clear choice.

"Not everyone has had the courage of explicitly declaring that the freedom of expression and satire, even when we do not like it, represents the only possible mean of defending our identity and our right to live free and safe."

Rossella Tercatin

Greece

Before the attacks in Paris, the Jewish Community in Greece had plenty of other worries.

They were concerned about the increasing power of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, about antisemitic speeches and Holocaust denial within the Greek Parliament, about the efforts of some radical leftist elements to delegitimise the right of Israel to exist.

And now, is Islamic terror a new threat to the 5,000 Jews in Greece?

A community of more than 120,000 Muslims have lived in Thrace, in the north-east of the country, since the 1920s - Greek citizens of Turkish origin, with full and equal rights with representatives in the Greek parliament.

But there are another 400,000 Muslims, immigrants, most of them illegal, from Arab and Asian countries.

The Muslim Union of Greece, which says it represents these immigrants, condemned "the hideous event which took place last Wednesday in Paris". But the union's president Naim Elghandour, added: "We should find out who really is behind this kind of provocations against Islam… I do not believe that this terror attack has been done by Islamists but probably by secret services."

No antisemitic incidents have been attributed to Muslims here but Jews feel that is no reason to be complacent.

"The danger of a possible attack against Jewish sites and people cannot be ignored. The recent attack against the Israeli embassy in Athens confirms that the danger exists. We do not fear, but we are awake and get all necessary precautions," said Benjamin Albalas, president of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece.

Minos Moissis, president of the Jewish Community of Athens, said Jews were working with the authorities to tighten security around Jewish institutions.

He added: "However we believe that terrorism will be best combated, when the society will condemn such acts unanimously. This is the most efficient protection of all."

Victor Eliezer