For French Jews, ‘everything has changed’ since October 7 – Technologist

Shana never imagined that she would ever leave France, a country to which she is “very attached,” “[her]” country that she “loves.” She had never imagined that one day, she would follow in the footsteps of her elder sister and older brother, who both left to live in Israel several years ago. It was a decision she had “never understood” until now. The 23-year-old Jewish law student from Paris agreed to give her first name, but not her last. Since October 7, 2023, the date of the Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, everything has changed, she explained.

On the Uber app, she’s now called Marie. Her parents forbid her to take the metro at night, call her constantly as soon as she sets foot outside and insist on hourly text messages to reassure them about her safety. “Even though nothing has ever happened to me,” she said, since October 7, “anxiety and fear” have taken over. “The rise in anti-Semitism, the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the anti-Semitic rhetoric of certain politicians from [radical left political party] La France Insoumise and all those who support it” frighten her. The figures cause her panic: The first quarter of 2024 saw a 300% rise in anti-Semitic acts compared with the same period the previous year. “I’m psychologically very stressed,” she said. So much so that she has decided to make aliyah, the Hebrew term for moving to Israel. Her departure for Tel Aviv is planned for November 6.

Like her, 1,660 French citizens of Jewish faith decided to move to Israel between October 7, 2023 and August 31 (1,500 since January 1). This is 50% more than in the same period the previous year. However, this increase needs to be put into perspective. The year 2023 saw 1,100 departures, “a historically low number, probably the lowest since the creation of the state of Israel [1948],” according to Emmanuel Sion, director of the Jewish Agency for Israel in France and French-speaking countries, the Israeli government body tasked with “enabling all those who wish to do so to move to Israel.” The number of aliyahs in 2024 should therefore hover around 2,000. “There’s no massive spike in departures; we’re just returning to normal averages, outside of years marked by exceptional events,” said Sion. In 2015, for example, there were 7,892 departures following the terrorist attack at the Paris Hypercacher kosher supermarket.

Despite this, France stands out as an exception in the world, particularly in the West, where there has been an overall 42% decrease in the number of aliyahs since the beginning of the year. “French Jews are not fleeing France because of rising anti-Semitism; they know that France is doing a lot for their safety,” said Sion. “October 7 and the following months were a trigger for those who already had this plan in mind, and France has always been the country with the highest number of aliyahs.”

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