French Jews at a march protestic anti-Semitic violence in Paris, France on March 28, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
(JTA) — An appeals court ruling that a man who killed a Jewish woman in her home while shouting Quranic verses is unfit to stand trial is prompting outraged reactions from French Jews who fear it sets a dangerous precedent that will undermine the fight against anti-Semitism. Kobili Troare admitted… Read more »
A man looks at an Emmanuel Macron poster at the French consulate in Jerusalem, May 7, 2017. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)
PARIS (JTA) — French Jews may have voted en masse for Emmanuel Macron in the final round of France’s presidential elections, but that doesn’t make him their dream president. Like many other supporters of the 39-year-old former investment banker, who on Sunday became the youngest French president in recent… Read more »
Emmanuel Macron addressing supporters at the Louvre in Paris after winning the French presidential election, May 7, 2017. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Emmanuel Macron, the 39-year-old former investment banker and political centrist, handily defeated the far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election. Exit polls showed Macron winning Sunday’s vote by a margin of 65 percent to 34 percent. Although her bid to lead the country failed, Le Pen’s divisive campaign against Macron achieved some of… Read more »
Director Yvan Attal, right, with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Dany Boon during the filming of "The Jews" in Paris. (Courtesy of Wild Bunch Productions)
PARIS (JTA) — When the French-Jewish film director Yvan Attal titled his much-hyped comedy about anti-Semitism “They Are Everywhere,” he did so in reference to how some anti-Semites feel about Jews and vice versa. But the French-language title applies in another way, too: Though the film has yet to… Read more »
Demonstrators gather at the Place de la Nation square in Paris following a mass unity rally protesting the recent terrorist attacks in the French capital, Jan. 11, 2015. (Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images) PARIS (JTA) — As he marched through Paris with some 1.5 million people, Philippe Schmidt felt he was experiencing a “beautiful moment of unity.” For Schmidt, a Jewish human rights lawyer and vice president of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, Sunday’s so-called Republican March was “a sign… Read more »
Alfred Dreyfus (Getty Images) (JTA) — Last week’s deadly hostage siege at a kosher supermarket in Paris has French Jews (and some non-Jews) proclaiming “Je suis juif,” or “I am Jewish,” in solidarity with the four people killed in the attack. Who are the Jews of France? Here’s a primer. How many Jews… Read more »
(JTA) — France’s parliament is calling for Palestinian statehood recognition. On Tuesday, the National Assembly voted 339 to 151 in favor of the largely symbolic motion that “invites the French government to use the recognition of the state of Palestine as an instrument to bring about a definitive resolution… Read more »
PARIS (JTA) — Shadowed by two bodyguards, Hassen Chalghoumi — a target of numerous anti-Semitic attacks in recent years — mingled with friends and colleagues at the fifth national convention of France’s Jewish community umbrella group, CRIF. But Chalghoumi is not a member of the Jewish community. Rather he… Read more »
Supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy awaiting his arrival at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, April 15, 2012. (Philippe Agnifili via CC) PARIS (JTA) — Jewish voters couldn’t put incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy over the top in the first round of presidential elections in France. The Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande eked out a 1.4 percent victory on Sunday over Sarkozy, the center-right president, although Jewish community leaders said Sarkozy was the… Read more »
Ozar Hatorah, a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, was the site of a shooting Monday that killed four people. (Ozar Hatorah) PARIS (JTA) — When Arie Bensemhoun, a Jewish community leader in Toulouse, woke up Tuesday morning, he thought for a moment that the horrific shooting of three children and a rabbi at a local Jewish school might have been just a bad dream. “Then the reality hit and I… Read more »
