PARIS — Freddo Pachter says that in his 17 years coordinating the immigration of French speakers to Israel for the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, he has never seen such high demand — and that includes after events such as the Hyper Cacher supermarket terror attack, the jihadist murders by Mohammed Merah, and the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
The number of requests he is receiving from French Jews has continued to rise since October 7, reflecting the climate of fear, he says.
“Some people tell me that they are afraid of being in France because they are Jewish, and they took down their mezuzahs,” Pachter says, referring to the parchment scrolls affixed to the doorposts of many Jewish homes. “It’s unbearable to live like that, to hide any sign of Judaism when no one is ashamed to say that they are Christian or Muslim.” READ MORE
On October 7, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border with Israel under the cover of heavy rocket fire, brutally murdering 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 240 more to the Gaza Strip, where 132 are still being held — not all of them alive. In the wake of the massacre, Israel launched an ongoing military campaign aimed at retrieving the hostages and ousting Hamas from power in the Strip.
The onslaught also set off a violent wave of anti-Israel activity around the globe, with Jews spanning the Diaspora reporting an alarming rise in antisemitic hate crimes often accompanied by anti-Israel messages.