Aliyah Spurred by European Anti-Semitism

September 10, 2014

Pro-Palestinian protestors
Photo Credit: Boris Niehaus/wikipedia.org The cover of Newsweek, a US news magazine, read “Exodus: Why Europe’s Jews Are Fleeing Once Again.” The opening line was chilling, “The mob howled for vengeance, the missiles raining down on the synagogue walls as the worshippers huddled inside. It was a scene from Europe in the 1930s—except this was eastern Paris on the evening of July 13, 2014.” Israel’s war with Gaza seems to be bringing out hatred of Israel within the hearts of people throughout Europe.

In France, there is open hatred. Synagogues have been vandalized. Jewish businesses have had their windows broken in acts that are reminiscent of Kristallnacht [when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property on Nov. 9–10, 1938]. Trashcans were set on fire in the streets. One news headline talked about “Paris burning.”

Palestinian flags fly at London rally
Photo Credit: Peter Mulligan/wikipedia.org In Italy, vandals defaced a Jewish memorial plaque that read: “The 16th of October 1943: whole families of Roman Jews dragged from their homes by the Nazis were concentrated in this building and deported to the extermination camps. Of one thousand persons, only sixteen survived.” Overnight someone scrawled in black the words: “Anne Frank was a liar,” “Dirty Jews” and “Jews your end is near.”

The heightened European anti-Semitism seems to have triggered an increase in the number of Jewish people moving to Israel, a country at war. Some of the arrivals plan to live in towns that are under constant threat of rockets from Gaza. They have received special briefings about the security situation and trauma counseling information.

Source: By Leslie McLinden, Bridges for Peace