sermonindex
Apr 16, 2013
The imperiled condition of French Jewry, at this point, is pretty well-trod territory. That said, one’s shock at a statistic like the 58 percent rise in anti-Semitic attacks in France last year, may not diminish.
A few weeks ago, an article chronicled the growth of a French Jewish community in the United Kingdom. To accommodate the influx, St. John’s Wood Synagogue in London started hosting French-language Shabbat services. Here’s one about the French Jews arriving in Israel at a rate of 2,000 per year.
Earlier this week, La Stampa revealed a similar expansion of French Jews in the Upper West Side of New York.
To understand what’s happening, we have to go to the Jewish Centre on 86th Street where, in March 2012, the Jewish New Yorkers urged their French counterparts to commemorate the victims of the shooting in the “Ozar Hatorah” school in Toulouse, where the jihadist Mohammed Merah killed a rabbi and three children.
Leading the ceremony was Zachary, 29, a transport manager from Strasbourg. “If New York is full of French Jews- he explains- it’s because in 2002, in connection with the second Palestinian Intifada, a season of physical aggression began towards us from the Arabs that still hasn’t stopped. It just brought the conflict from the Middle East onto our streets.”
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/127076/the-very-real-jewish-exodus-from-france
I saw an article about this a couple of weeks ago but by and large the mainstream press doesn't seem to cover it at all. Ask an average person if he knows about anti-Semitism on the rise in France and you'll likely get a stare and a "What is on the rise?" I think it's a harbinger of things to come and especially as the Iraeli/Palestinian conflict continues to intensify and threaten world stability. If the church can prepare and continue to be a friend to Israel and Jewish people it may help heal the historical breach between the church and the Jewish community and could be a preparatory witness of sorts to help open the eyes regarding Christ of still blind Israel and the Jewish community. That's part of the eschatological role of the church in my opinion.
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