Wednesday, January 14, 2015

FRANCE - Jewish Community

"French Jewish community ‘shocked but not surprised’ by attacks on kosher market" PBS NewsHour 1/12/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Even before last week's attack in Paris, attacks on the Jewish community in France have been on the rise, prompting many to flee the country.  Gwen Ifill talks to the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg about the growing threats facing Jews in France.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  As we reported earlier, thousands of French police were dispatched today to secure Jewish sites throughout France.

Friday’s attack on the kosher grocery came as a shock to many around the world.  But many French Jews were less surprised.  Anti-Semitic attacks in the country, often violent, were on the rise in 2014.  They included beatings, improvised grenade attacks and even rape.

The number of Jews fleeing France to make a new home in Israel more than doubled last year, growing from 3,400 in 2013 to 7,000.

The Atlantic's” Jeffrey Goldberg is just back from a reporting trip to Paris, where he has been reporting on the growing threats to the country’s Jewish community.

Jeffrey, welcome.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, “The Atlantic”:  Thank you.

GWEN IFILL:  Are these specific new threats or is this something that’s just been continuing?

JEFFREY GOLDBERG:  No, the French-Jewish community has been living a certain reality for quite a long time already.  Two years ago, there was a horrific attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse.  Three children murdered by a returning Syrian jihadist.

So, there is nothing — this is in the category of shocking, but not surprising, to I think much of the French Jewish community.  The rest of France is sort of coming on board to the realization of what’s going on.

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