Tagged French aliyah

Witnessing joyous French aliyah — and hoping Diaspora can be sustained

(L-R): Tucsonans Bobby Present, Fran Katz and Deborah Oseran in Paris on the Jewish Federations of North America Campaign and Directors Mission in July.
August 25, 2016 / Deborah Oseran, Special to the AJP

This July, as incoming 2017 Campaign chair for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, I had the opportunity, with my husband, Bobby Present, and Fran Katz, JFSA senior vice president, to participate in a Jewish Federations of North America Campaign and Directors Mission to France and Israel. The emotional… Read more »

Aliyah debate exposes French Jewry’s internal fault lines

Mark Halter, second from right, and Hassen Chalghoumi, in white cap, at a mass rally in Paris following the shootings at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher supermarket, Jan. 11, 2015. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
March 31, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

PARIS (JTA) — A burst of applause greeted Holocaust survivor Marek Halter and his close friend, Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, as they entered the Synagogue de la Victoire together in January. Halter, a celebrated author and friend of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, is known for his outreach to moderate… Read more »

French Jewry 101: From Rashi to Dreyfus to Hyper Cacher
January 14, 2015 / Gabrielle Birkner, JTA
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 »

In Paris, Sharansky warns of ‘beginning of end’ for European Jewry
July 14, 2014 / Cnaan Liphshiz
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, left, with the organization's head of French operations, Ariel Kandel, at a Paris synagogue, July 2, 2014. (Alain Azria)

PARIS (JTA) — On their 40th wedding anniversary, Avital and Natan Sharansky went sightseeing in the City of Lights. But the Sharanskys didn’t follow the trail of countless couples who come here to kiss at the Eiffel Tower or slip so-called love locks on bridges over the River Seine. Theirs… Read more »

Economic, security concerns driving record levels of French aliyah
December 16, 2013 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA
Ariel Kandel, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel's France operations, at his Paris office on Dec. 11, 2013. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

PARIS (JTA) — In an overcrowded conference room in the heart of Paris’ 14th arrondissement, a hundred French Jews are losing their patience. They have gathered at the Paris office of the Jewish Agency for Israel for a lecture on immigrating to Israel, but the agency staff is running… Read more »