The City of Light is losing its Stars of David.
As a rash of anti-Semitic attacks, largely at the hands of Islamists and extremist political groups, has hit France, many Jews are fleeing.
“In the last couple of years, [there have] been hundreds [of French Jews] moving to New York City,” said Steve Eisenberg, co-founder of the Jewish International Connection of New York, a Manhattan group that helps international Jews acclimate to the city. “They’re here because they just can’t breathe as Jews in France. There’s no Jewish future there. You can’t walk in Paris wearing a yarmulke. You’re taking your life in your hands.”
In January, an 8-year-old outside his Jewish day school in Sarcelles was beaten to the ground, and a 15-year-old girl wearing a Jewish school uniform was slashed across the face by an unknown man.