THE END OF FRENCH JEWRY?

The End of French Jewry? 

by Gabrielle Birkner 

After the horrific murder of Ilan Halimi and three subsequent anti-Semitic attacks, pressure to flee growing for some, and dismissed by others.

Noam Chelly was a baby when his family emigrated from Tunisia to France, settling in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles -- the enclave sometimes called "Little Jerusalem" by its Jewish residents. The recent abduction and murder of a young French Jew, Ilan Halimi, followed last weekend by three anti-Semitic attacks in Sarcelles, has convinced Chelly, an 18-year-old high school senior, to move to Israel. Chelly's choice is emblematic of the perception -- alternately embraced and rejected among French Jewry -- that there is no future for France's nearly 600,000 Jews.

"I can no longer live here," said Chelly, who plans to make aliyah and join the Israeli army by the end of the year. "There are too many problems, too much noise, and since Ilan's murder things have only gotten worse. There is more and more aggression against Jews -- verbal and physical.".... "I've thought a lot about moving to Israel, and my parents urged me to think about it carefully because life is difficult there," said Chelly, an observant Jew. "Now I've made my decision, now it's definite."

An "atmosphere of anti-Semitism" has many French Jews pondering moving to Israel, said Rabbi Simon Barchichat, who works at La Griba, a Jewish school in Sarcelles. "There is fear," he said. "There is disgust, and if they can leave, they do."