Jews: Au revoir France

Life in France has become untenable for Jews.  For details see Vanity Fair August 15, 2015.

Does it matter?  That depends on how you see such matters.  In 2013, there were about 14 millions Jews world wide.  Six million were in Israel and 5.4 million were in the U.S.  Only about a half a million were in France.  That's not much more than the the roughly 400 thousand in Canada and the roughly 300 thousand in the U.K.

Yet anyone with a grasp of French history should perhaps show some concern.  Open up Wikipedia.  Glance over the names of the great French Jewish artists, French Jewish scientists, French Jewish political leaders, French Jewish musicians, French Jewish industrialists.  Jews have contributed, and contributed greatly, to French culture. That will soon end.  If Jews in France must fear for their safety, then of course it's time for them to move on.  Some few Jews may harbor the delusion that they will be able to continue in France as they have in the past.  A considerable number of German Jews felt that way in the late 1930's.

It does trouble me to see the France we once knew, losing their culture; losing all that made France French.  But, of course, I can't worry more about France and its future than the French themselves.

Au revoir.