Anti-Semitism Skyrocketing in France

Anti-Semitism is skyrocketing in France. Last year saw a 58 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents there according to a new report published Wednesday by the security unit of the Jewish communities of France.

The report, which called 2012 “a year of unprecedented violence against Jews in France,” noted 614 anti-Semitic incidents last year as compared to 389 such incidents in 2011.

Most of the attacks were verbal, the report said, but there was a significant number of physical assaults as well.

For example, just two weeks ago, a woman was arrested in Toulouse after trying to stab a student at the Ohr HaTorah Jewish day school.

The school was the target of a terror attack last year which left four people dead, including a rabbi and three students. It was known at the time as the Otzar HaTorah day school, but has since changed its name.

A recent survey conducted by the World Zionist Organization (WZO) revealed that more than 40 percent of the population in France holds some kind of anti-Semitic belief. The most common was that which said Jews “have too much power in the business world.”

The survey also found that 47 percent of the French population believes “French Jews are more loyal to Israel than the country in which they live.”

Due at least in part to the “rising wave anti-Jewish hatred and violence in Europe, particularly in France,” WZO decided to hold its European Conference on Countering Anti-Semitism this year “near Paris.”