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French Jews Flee Country Due to Growing Anti-Semitism

<p>In July 2015&comma; Alain Benhamou came home to find the words &ldquo&semi;Dirty Jew&rdquo&semi; scrawled across the wall of his apartment just outside of Paris&period; This marked the second time within three months that Benhamou had been a victim of discrimination in Bondy&comma; a small Parisian suburb that he lived in for over 40 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now&comma; Benhamou is just one more French Jew who is leaving his home to seek a safer neighborhood where Jews are more accepted&period; In 2015&comma; over 8&comma;000 French Jews relocated to Israel&comma; a move that could have been caused in part by the terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in the country&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>France has the largest population of Jewish people in Europe&comma; however it&rsquo&semi;s also home to the largest population of Muslims&period; This community has slowly overpowered the Jewish population&comma; creating an atmosphere of anti-semitism and intolerance&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This new form of terrorism has led some French Jews to feel uncomfortable wearing their skullcaps or expressing their faith in their own homes&period; Can you blame them&quest; After the Charlie Hebdo attackers held Jewish hostages at a kosher supermarket&comma; Jews began to feel a shift in how they were treated within the community&period; Their suspicions were confirmed with shortly after&comma; a rabbi in Marseilles was attacked and killed by an ISIS supporter&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In fact&comma; after the attacks against French Jews&comma; one French official even advised the community not to wear their skullcaps outside the home to prevent crime&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Besides Israel&comma; London has also become a new home to many Jews who decide to leave France for a more tolerant community&period; Although London also has a large Muslim population&comma; Jews have not been directly targeted by extremist Muslims in London as of yet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In London&comma; Jews find more job opportunities and tolerance towards their religion&period; London synagogues have now started to give sermons in French to cater to the rise in French Jews within the community&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although a large wall inscribed with the many names of French Jews who were killed by Nazis stands in the yards of the Grand Synagogue&comma; it seems that history may be starting to repeat itself&period; Discriminating against Jews is just one small part of the war against terrorism&comma; but it seems like this vulnerable population is once again being targeted&mdash&semi;and largely forgotten&mdash&semi;fueled by hatred&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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