[AFP] Kandel told AFP that the reasons for the hike in numbers were a "climate of anti-Semitism" and the prevailing gloomy economic situation in France.
If it were only the Jews leaving France, anti-Semitism might be given additional weight. Young people of all faiths are leaving both France and the UK in record numbers.
For perspective, the numbers are still vanishingly small: perhaps 5,000 this year to Israel out of a population of 500,000, though 90,000 have made aliyah since 1948.
Rich people have been leaving France as well, though mostly they seem to be going to London, which is near at hand for moving back when political conditions change. Hey -- whatever happened to all those French aristos the Scarlet Pimpernel rescued? |
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