World
More French Jews disguise their identities in public, survey finds
As Emmanuel Macron visits Jerusalem, a poll reveals trepidation among his compatriots at home
January 22, 2020 13:28
As Emmanuel Macron visits Jerusalem, a poll reveals trepidation among his compatriots at home
January 22, 2020 13:2870 per cent of French Jews say they have been the target of at least one antisemitic attack, according to a survey released ahead of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The study, carried out by public opinion institution Ifop for the American Jewish Committee, says that 34 per cent of Jews feel threatened because of their religion, compared with only 8 per cent of the overall population who feel that way.
The situation among young Jews is particularly alarming: 84 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 say they have been the target of antisemitic acts, with 79 per cent per cent saying they have been insulted and two in five being physically assaulted because they are Jewish.
The survey was published ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Israel, where the French president will attend the fifth World Holocaust Forum.
“We ordered the study to have a clearer picture of the Jewish experience of antisemitism in France,” the Director of AJC Europe, Simone Rodan Benzaquen, said.
“And the study shows eight out of ten people don’t even report the attacks carried out against them.
“Young Jews have been a major target because schools and universities are anything but safe spaces. The younger generations illustrate a trend. They were born into this period of antisemitism. They’ve always lived with that explosion from the playground to school to university.”
Amid rising reports of antisemitic attacks within schools, more Jews have taken their children out of public schools over the last decade. Only one third of the community still attend them, according to the survey.
In 2017 a former school headteacher Bernard Ravet admitted that he had advised a Jewish family not to attend his public school in Marseille because it would be too dangerous for their son who had just returned from Israel.
“The study shows that two out of every three French Jews have examined the option of emigrating to Israel,” Ms Rodan Benzaquen said.
The study shows that French Jews have adapted their habits with what Ifop calls a “strategy of invisibility”: they avoid streets and neighbourhoods where they risk being attacked, and no longer use the words “Jewish” and “Israel” in public.
One third of Jews avoid wearing skullcaps, especially on public transportation like metros and buses. Some take them off when the streets are dark in the evening, or wear caps instead.
The survey’s findings tally with anecdotal evidence from a recent protest over the Sarah Halimi killing in which Jewish mothers told the JC they no longer wear their Star of David necklaces and ban their children from wearing jewellery that could identify them as Jews.
Jews told Ifop they conceal their Jewish identity in their work places. France’s chief rabbi Haim Korsia says Jews no longer ask their employers for a day off to celebrate Kippour or Rosh Hashanah because they fear being flagged as Jewish.
But the chief rabbi added it was positive that the same study found 73 per cent of non-Jews recognised antisemitism is a genuine threat.
“In the early 2000s people didn’t talk openly about antisemitism but now, the overall population sees that the situation French Jews are facing is a sign that something has gone wrong within French society,” he told Le Parisien.
“The only way we can battle this situation is if we are all united.”
