Tagged French anti-Semitism

This French town is known for saving Jews during WWII. It just elected a far-right mayor who has been accused of anti-Semitism.

Children sing at the inauguration of an avenue named for the Righteous Among the Nations in Moissac, France, April 28, 2013. (Courtesy of Moissac, ville de Justes oubliée)
July 14, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — The municipal council of Moissac sometimes calls its placid French town overlooking the Tarn River, near Toulouse, “the city of the Righteous Among the Nations.” It’s a reference to how hundreds of locals during the Holocaust helped resistance activists rescue about 500 Jewish children — an occurrence that… Read more »

An unwanted symptom of the coronavirus crisis in France: Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories

Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, left, and Alain Soral arrive at the Paris courthouse for Soral's trial for inciting hatred against Jews, March 12, 2015. (Loic Venance/AFP via Getty Images)
April 2, 2020 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

(JTA) — Anti-Semitism has plagued French society for centuries, flaring up in times of crisis — especially during epidemics. In the 14th century, for instance, Jews were massacred in France during the Black Death epidemic after they were blamed for spreading the disease by poisoning water wells. In the… Read more »

A famed French-Jewish philosopher is afraid to leave his home

Pessimistic questions have become a trademark of Alain Finkielkraut's writing. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
June 12, 2019 /

PARIS (JTA) — As a French celebrity philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut belongs to a tiny group of VIPs who get to lead normal, paparazzi-free lives despite having film star-like recognizability here. Unlike most countries, France makes celebrities out of intellectual heroes. They’re revered, quoted and featured regularly on primetime television… Read more »

A French Jew’s killing provides a test for the new Macron administration

French President Emmanuel Macron at a news conference in Paris, June 12, 2017. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images)
June 13, 2017 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

  (JTA) – Before he threw Sarah Halimi to her death from a window of her third-story apartment in Paris, 27-year-old Kobili Traore called his Jewish neighbor “Satan” and cried out for Allah. These and other facts about the April 4 incident that shocked French Jewry are known from testimonies… Read more »

Camp J, Tucson relatives give French teen taste of American summer
August 15, 2014 / Laura Wilson Etter, Special to the AJP
Avi Szychter rallies campers during the Camp J Maccabiah games in July. (Julie Zorn/TJCC)

Sitting in the Tucson Jewish Community Center, surrounded by Jewish children and adolescents, French teenager Avi Szychter feels right at home. For the 18-year-old, spending the summer in the Camp J Bonim Leaders-in-Training program has been the perfect opportunity to escape the growing anti-Semitism in France and relax before… Read more »