The Jews of Europe are once again in grave danger, while anti-Semitism has become the common currency of politics in many European countries.
Seventy years after the Holocaust, a pogrom took place in Toulouse, one of the most pleasant French cities. An Israeli rabbi and three Jewish children were executed during a killing spree. Four Jews “returned” to Israel in a coffin.
The question we face at this time is as follows: will the Jews have a place in the New Europe? Or will the remnant of European Jewry flee once again?
Nearly 80% of European Jews today can be found in France and in the United Kingdom. In both countries, the number of Jews is dramatically falling. When Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, reacting to anti-Semitic attacks in France, said in 2004 that French aliyah is “a must and they have to move immediately,” people were embarrassed. But these sentiments have changed.
A new exodus from the Diaspora could now take place. In the past few years, the number of French Jews immigrating to Israel has doubled. Hundreds of French Jews have bought apartments in Israel. It’s their “pied-a-terre” in case the situation gets darker in Europe.
According to the statistics available, due to aliyah and assimilation, French Jewry is projected to experience a dramatic decline from 520,000 in 2000, to 480,000 in 2020, to 380,000 in 2050, and to 300,000 by 2080. The Jewish population in the United Kingdom will also decline to 240,000 in 2020, 180,000 in 2050, and 140,000 in 2080.
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, the world’s leading Talmudic scholar, recently delivered an apocalyptic vision: “The Jewish community in Europe is dying.” Enclaves of ultra-Orthodox Jews are likely to prevail in the main European cities, but Judaism will survive as mere folklore.
The Auschwitz burden
Prominent Dutch politician Frits Bolkestein recently sparked an uproar in the Netherlands by saying that Jews “should emigrate to the US or Israel.” Bolkestein’s remarks echoed those of Benjamin Jacobs, Holland’s chief rabbi, who in 2010 said that “the future for Dutch Jewry is moving to Israel.”
Last autumn, the ancient synagogue of Weesp became the first synagogue in Europe since the Second World War to cancel Shabbat services due to threats to the safety of the faithful.
The Pew Research Center’s 2008 Global Attitudes Project found that 46% of Spanish residents held an unfavorable view of Jews. Meanwhile, 47% of Germans are of the opinion that “Israel is exterminating the Palestinians,” according to a poll undertaken by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, affiliated with the German Social Democratic Party.
There are more than 1,000 Jews in Oslo, but you never see them. Not one. Jews in Norway make upjust 0.003% of the total population, but the country is a bulwark of global anti-Semitism. Elsewhere, due to security reasons, Jews are fleeing the Swedish city of Malmo and Antwerp in Belgium, a town once proudly called “the Northern Jerusalem.”
To quote psychiatrist Zvi Rex: “Europe will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz.” Europe doesn’t want to live under the psychological burden of Auschwitz forever. The Jews are living reminders of the moral failure of Europe. This leads to the projection of guilt on Israel and the remaining European Jews.
Indeed, it’s a tragic but unavoidable process: the New Europe will be a Jews-free continent.
@ bernard ross:
Well said. I should say I’m not Jewish, but as an observer I’ll say that Israel should represent a chance for Jewish belief and practice to be vitalized free of fear and persecution. How much of what passes as Jewish culture has been influenced by generations of persecution? How much of what survives is an extraction yielded from generations culled by mass murder?
Israel represents a fresh start for survivors and this is why a Jewish future is so important for the future of Israel. Jewish revitalization in Israel is justice in history and humanity needs all the justice in history it can get.
yamit82 Said:
I agree with this statement on both counts. However, I read your links, the first did not work but the second “The Dead End of Jewish Culture” did. I found this interesting first for what it did not mention. There were a number of references to eastern european Jewish culture but not one of Israel either biblically or modern. This phrase “But to really flourish, Jewish culture needs its natural environment: authentic Jewish life.” and this phrase “Not klezmer concerts to evoke nostalgia for the shtetl, but Jewish bands playing Jewish music at Jewish weddings where Jewish communities are celebrating the beginning of a new generation of a Jewish family.posed more questions than answers.” But what are all these nouns with the adjective “Jewish” In her own article she sees everything Jewish as being ashekenazi, yiddish, eastern european. Having grown up in an ango culture with eastern european grandparents from Poland and Germany who escaped and were in hiding in WWII and gone to Hebrew School for a number of years prior to bar mitzvah; here are my feelings on eastern european jewish culture. I say feelings because there is no evidence behind them that I have thought about. I have always been repelled by most aspects of eastern european jewish culture: the germanic sound of yiddish has always turned me off, the orthodox garb of black (seemingly of eastern european origin) I find very repellant. I surmise that it has to do with a desire to cut out a horrible past in Jewish history and that I find it to feel masochistic for jews to be mimicking those symbols of horror in dress, speech etc. On the other hand I have always been attracted by Israel and its relation to the ancient jewish culture. For me it is distasteful to symbolize jewish culture with eastern european slave culture whereas Israel symbolizes strength and independence. The author states “Authentic Jewish life is characterized by the study of Torah, the observance of Shabbat and Kashrut, and the thrice-daily worship of God.”. Note the use of the word characterized meaning these are behaviors which express an authentic Jewish life but nowhere is there really any answer stated as to what is authentic Jewish life. Israel is the symbol of the environment which nurtures Jewish life as its memory nurtured Jewish cultural life throughout the diaspora days. I believe one of the causes of the death of Jewish culture is the idea of being a jew only being passed through the woman. This causes the progeny of jewish men and non jewish women to be alienated from Judaism. Is this idea from God or is it the product of men interpreting God or is it a practical approach before DNA? What about Ruth? Dear me, I meant to avoid a religious discussion.
@ yamit82:
Yep
@ Shy Guy:
Repeat and rinse
Michael Ejercito Said:
It does not take an Einstein to mentally infer the words “modern day” in relation to the ani-Semitism which Paul is referring to.
Paul Said:
Repeat and rinse
yamit82 Said:
Disgraceful irony alert
Paul Said:
Funny how Haman could have been a Christian centuries before Christ, or a Muslim at least a millenium before Muhammad.
@ Paul:
Christian Zionists
Tovia Singer
@ bernard ross:
My comments and links were not meant to get into another religious discussion and personally I like most Christians. That said, I don’t feel the same way about Christianity which I maintain is as much if not more an existential threat to Jews and Judaism as are the Arabs and other Islamic fanatics are to us a physical threat. Between us I think we can handle the physical threat easier than the spiritual threat.
Unlike Ted Laura and others I am an Isolationist and believe our ultimate survival is linked to divesting from the heavy yoke placed by America around our necks and the willingness of our leaders to sell our sovereignty to a foreign power. We are not so weak or so poor that it is wise or necessary today, especially when within ten year we will be a major energy producer and power. I expect within those ten years we will get most of the European Jews flooding into Israel and not a few North American Jews as well. That influx of western Jews will guarantee our economic well being regardless of our oil and gas finds.
Iran is a major bump in the road that will need to be leveled.
For your beside reading Here
And Here
and another Here Only in Israel
@ yamit82:
these links are interesting. I found the behavior to be extremely vulgar, irreverent and odd. I certainly see your point about a negation of Judaism. Certainly there seemed to be no desire for the participants to know anything about the people, and their ways, who have been reverently, and with humility, practicing Judaism for 1000’s of years. It looked like one of these churches that make a show of worshiping which is so opposite to Judaism. It is astounding the way they handled the Torah as if they have no concept of sacred and sacrosanct. I almost expected a bolt of lightening out of the sky. The thing I find very odd about Christianity is that although they worship Jesus and elevate him to a God they seem to have no interest in the religion, which now apparently all admit, that he was overtly practicing up until his death. Apparently his last supper was a Passover Seder just a couple of days before his death which every Jew knows is a religious ceremony. My understanding is that the Christian communion of the wine and “wafer” sound very much like the wine and matzoh of Passover. If he were a Jew at worshiping at Pesach Seder who could never had said the words attributed to him regarding the wine and matzoh. Perhaps this was something changed by the romans upon their takeover of Christianity to reflect their own paganism. If I were to worship someone and found out he was worshiping in a particular way I think i would very seriously look into what he was doing as worship. I would also seriously look into the practices of the people who continue to practice the same religion to this day. Perhaps the end of days that the Christians talk about will involve that rather than the Jews coming to worship Jesus they will desire to worship God as Jesus did and as the Jews still do; realizing that Jesus was a practicing Jew and that as such he could not consider himself a God or son of God as The Lord is one” and “thou shalt have no others before me” Apparently he said that he did not come to change the law and to every Jew the Torah is the Law.
@ yamit82:
Yamit, how do you feel about CUFI? My impression is that they are generally respectful of Jewish belief and are careful to distance themselves as believers from Israel as a political cause.
mk@ Paul:
Christianity is a negation of Judaism
“The negation of Jewish existence is lodged so deeply in Christian doctrine, below the level of awareness, that Christian teachers and theologians unthinkingly endorse and repeat it, even when they want to adopt a new, positive stance toward the Jewish people” GREGORY BAUM
Tell me if you see anything wrong in any of these clips?,
John Hagee exposes all on Aish HaTorah’s Old City rooftop overlooking Temple Mount (March 2012)
Last week Pastor Hagee used the rooftop of one of the most respected Torah institutions in the world which overlooks the Kotel and Har Habayit – to declare that jesus is lord and king and to assert that “every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess” that belief.
Passion play to be performed at the Kotel in Jerusalem
Ralph Messer declares church group “Israelites” and “Chosen”, with the Torah as their inheritance (excerpts, Nov. 2009 Torah.tv)
Link to Usenet comment thread is here.
@ yamit82:
I think you misinterpret my post. I think we are in complete agreement. Yes, antisemitism is an exclusively Christian and Muslim institution. I think you could narrow it down even further to just an exclusively Catholic institution if you could imagine that Islam itself was something born from contact with the Catholic Church. I think it can be observed that the further Christianity has its roots from Catholicism, the less antisemitic it is. Even where you might argue that countries like China oppose Israel out of perceived national interests are still under the influence of Islam and Christianity, just as the Soviet Union was. For example, it is hard to see how a country as vast as China could be influenced at all in a material way by the affairs of Israel.
Joe Hamilton Said:
@ monostor:
Well, now you are just twisting my words around. Why do you need me to probe further? Just make some stuff up and accuse me of it without my assistance please. Thank you.
@ Paul:
Forgive me for saying, but your request sounds sort of funny: the Jews must stay put and put up with all kind of harassment in order to save non-Jews from antisemitism. Is that makes sense to you, for it doesn’t to me ? And what is, in your opinion, that global disease one symptom of which is antisemitism ? Can you be more specific ?
I don’t see persecuted Jews ( as a collective) anywhere but if you are against persecution of Jews the question is why? What’s it to you? I’m not being flippant just curious as to what motivates you.
I never thought that making aliyah would end antisemitism. Since all Jews not living in countries other than Israel are but temporary residents once their physical safety is threatened then I say leave ASAP and only to Israel and establish permanent residency.
antisemitism is not symbolic of anything but what it is: An irrational pathological hatred of Jews. No I have lived and spent a lot of time in the far east and I can attest that they not only don’t know anything about Jews they are devoid of Jew hatred. That’s more than half the population of the world. That does not make their governments pro Israel but their anti Israel positions are based on their perceived national interests and not hatred of Jews as Jews.
My Conclusion thus is Jew Hatred exists only in Muslim and Christian societies and are grounded in their respective religions and the influence of those religions on their respective cultures. Countries in Europe with virtually no Jews and whose citizens never met a Jew are even today virulently anti Jewish.
Always remember that the Torah says: “Among the nations you will know no rest….” meaning, that in the Diaspora, things are going to be bad. And they have been bad and good but the good always, eventually turns bad. Pathological Jew Hated has helped keep Jews from assimilation thereby preserving Jews and Judaism< The weak left the fold and only the strong remained.
If you need the Jews to fight your battles i think you will find the Jews already have a full plate and anyway the root causes are Christianity and Islam so how would you suggest the Jews help out?
@ yamit82:
When I say “the rest of us”, I mean everyone who is not Jewish who opposes the persecution of the Jews. This, like the Jews themselves, are certainly a minority and diverse too. But we exist.
When I say “disservice”, I mean that when Jews or anyone argues that making Aliyah, immigrating to Israel, is the only solution to confronting antisemitism. You can run from antisemitism to Israel if you are Jewish, but meanwhile, there are sympathizers left behind who have to struggle with those who persecute the Jews in these countries they flee from. The antisemitism is just one face of the problem. I understand if Jews want to leave places like France, Norway and even the US for the freedom to live as Jews in peace in Israel.
But antisemitism is just one symptom of a global disease that must be wiped out and the world needs the help of the Jews to do it. The Jews already are doing the first job by simply defending themselves and Israel. But we cannot afford to just resign ourselves to antisemitic beliefs. They must be denounced and exposed as lies and hysteria. And Jews must do this too, non Jews cannot do it alone.
@ Paul:
Who is the “rest of us”?
What “disservice”?
Joe Hamilton Said:
I maintain that the aristocracy and capitalists(Ford,etc) are the real cause behind the rise of Hitler and the extermination of the Jews. They identified their greatest threat of communism as being a jewish movement spearheaded by jewish intellignentsia. The genocide of the jews was undertaken to remove any possible spread of communism by removing whom they viewed as the carriers of the disease, a sort of bacteria they believed should be eradicated. They attempted to bring down the Russian revolution after WWI and then realized they had to kill ideas and therefore minds. These were the wealthy and elites of their nations and today it is arriving at the same place and being led by politicians and academia. All of the assets of the descendants of all those involved belong by right to their victims the Jews. The same is true regarding the assets of those involved in, and funding terror against, the jews today. Perhaps one day these assets can be seized.
Are you kidding me, I can’t organize a one car funeral let alone a march. Years ago when I was in my 40’s and 50’s I could organize. Now my wife and sons tell me “don’t do this, don’t do that” good grief. They do allow me to cook.
For over 25 years I and a group use to run 25-30 miles a week and work-out, then I had to retire after I used up all the cartilage in my one knee and then waited too long (last year) to have a total knee replacement. I walk better but not without issues. They tell me the issues could last for more than a year.
Marching is no longer in my pay grade. I can’t march but I do pray for my Jewish friends and Israel, especially for the wonderful men and women of the IDF.
Mr. Meotti, please define “New Europe”. What in your opinion is the cause of the new exodus ?
@ rongrand:
Ron:
Another outstanding post from you- Israel is probably the only nation on earth that can go it alone. It is all a matter of devine intervention. Israel cannot be criticized since its actions are all a fulfillment of the will of the Almighty. Why the Arabs don’t recognize that fact is beyond comprehension.
Rongrand, it seems to me that a short time ago you promised to organize a million Jews march on Washington in support of Israel. How is that shaping up?
Is all this advice from antisemites saying the Jews of Europe should move to Israel friendly? Of course not. At the same time they make these kind of pronouncements, these same people put the pressure on Israel as a pariah state. Or, even worse, something less than a state at all. These people want to make Israel into a Jewish ghetto like in Lodz or Warsaw. And once they have them all there, it will be that much easier to get rid of them all, after which, they will move on to other innocent vulnerable populations in the world.
Jews should be able to live as freely in the world as anyone else, and Jews do the rest of us a disservice when they conclude that the only solution to antisemitism in the world is to make Aliyah. Antisemitism is one symptom of a global disease, a plague of ignorance and hysteria that must be wiped out if humanity is to survive.
Should only a small number of Jews be left in France, the non-Moslem, non-Jewish population will be next.
@ Joe Hamilton:
Are we witnessing the same in the ME? The reason I believe it is necessary for Israel to do what is necessary to protect her people and nation and not pay attention to world opinion.
Let us hope and pray the good people of the world will come to aid and support Israel and not let history repeat itself.
If there was ever a time it is now for all Jews to unite and solidify with Israel.
Time likewise for everyone of us to do the same regardless of our origin or faith.
To elaborate on the “Island Nazi theme” the book “The Secret War against the Jews” by John Loftus and Mark Aarons makes the claim which I have seen documented by other sources, that saving up to 2 million or more Jews during the holocaust was possible. However, it was the British government which put pressure on FDR to deliberate allow Hitler to murder as many Jews as possible.At the 1943 Bermuda conference, British and American officials “formally decided nothing should be done about it” (the massive murder of European Jews). “The (British)Foreign Office and the US State Department were both afraid that the Third Reich would be quite willing,indeed eager to stop the gas chambers, empty the concentration camp, and let hundreds of thousands ,if not millions ,of Jewish survivors emigrate to freedom in the West”. The unspoken consensus was that it was better to let Hitler handle them (Jews) than arrange a mass evacuation to the US , the UK or Canada. Of course, the Canadian government during World War II, despite having the second largest country in the world which was practically empty, made the well known statement in response to how many Jewish refugees they would be willing to accept responded with the statement “none is too many”. The willingness of these 3 countries to allow to murder of millions of Jews rather than have any more Jews in their countries is not wild, unsubstantiated claim. The original source was from Professor David Wyman of the University of Massachusetts in his book “The Abandonment of the Jews”. After the war the highest ranking officer in the RAF “Marshall Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris declared afterwards that a rescue plan was perfectly feasible, but I was never asked to undertake it.” The British were especially hostile to Jews and if someone other than Churchill became prime minister, Britain probably would have come to an “accommodation” with Hitler in 1940. I especially despise the British because not only were they occupying the Jewish national homeland, they had the gall to close the doors of the Jews’ own homeland to millions of Jews facing death. Many senior members of the British aristocracy especially Edward Windsor,openly called for an alliance with Hitler against the godless Bolsheviks. These facts are documented in Martin Gilbert’s “Auschwitz and the Allies, and Walter Lacquer’s “The Terrible Secret” as well as David Wyman’s works.
A massive Aliyah of French and British Jews could only strengthen what is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world Israel. The British Jews are terrified of the criticizing the anti Israel policies of Island Nazis(British) government. They are, with few exceptions, very afraid to criticize even the most outrageous behavior of Island Nazis government. I use the term Island Nazi because Britain deliberately refused to assist saving at least 1 million Jews during the holocaust. A massive new Aliyah (G-d willing) would make remove the Fakestinian trespassers and most of Israeli Arab citizens to make room for more Jews returning home, more of an imperative. Daniel Pipes who was the subject of a news story of this website, predicts Israeli Arabs will be increasingly hostile to Israel and the majority will become a definite fifth column. Just as the Aliyah from the former Soviet Union helped Israel become a high tech giant, a large influx of British and French Jews would make move Israel ahead of almost all countries in terms of high technology and more importantly advanced weaponry. A large aliyah from France which is still ahead of Israel in total defense related exports would improve Israel’s defense industry. The Dassault family’s (who are Jewish), company is a world class manufacturer of sophisticated weaponry including jet fighters. This is just what Israel’s defense industry needs. Israel certainly could develop their own indigenous world class jet fighter as they did with the Levi. Having some French aerospace engineers move to Israel with experience in the French aerospace industry would help Israel produce their own jet fighters easier and more importantly would be make the Israel made jet fighters a real competitor to American made or Russian made jets.It would also make it easier to tell the next Obama who is the US president to go f–k themselves when they demand Israel sit down with the Fakestinian mafia to negotiate their own suicide.