Charlie Hebdo aftermath: Worried French Jews eye move to Israel

French-Jews gather to pay tribute to the victims of the attack on the kosher supermarket during a rally in Tel Aviv. Photo / AP

At the Family Cafe in Jerusalem, owned by French Jewish immigrants, talk turned yesterday to the future of France's 500,000-strong Jewish community after the killings at a kosher supermarket reinforced growing fears that France is becoming an unsafe place for Jews.

The four victims, Yohan Cohen, 22, Yoav Huttab, 21, Phillipe Barlam, 45, and Francois-Michel Saada, 64, are to be buried in Jerusalem today, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. It said this was being done at the request of the families.

The cafe's owner, Nomi Marwani, 32, said she hoped that in the wake of the attack, her cousins in Paris and the rest of France's Jews would move to Israel soon. "I say to them, France is finished. I think that all the Jews must come here within a year. Not only for their security, but because this will strengthen Israel."

Her sister Avigail conceded that Israel also had its safety problems, "but at least we can say it's our country".

The sisters spoke to a cousin in France at the weekend and said he was in a difficult position. He feels France is unsafe, yet doubts whether he will be able to support his wife and five children in Israel. "Financially it's an easier life for big families there," Nomi said, with the Government offering more support than they could get in Israel.

Rivka Ilan, who moved from France before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, still has two sisters there. "I'm really worried," she said. "Even before what happened it was tense. I hope this won't spread but everyone feels it can happen again."

Israeli officials are now hoping for an increase in immigration from France, which accounted for the largest number of immigrants to Israel last year - 7000, according to the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency.

In this spirit, Netanyahu said: "I want to tell every Jew in France and in Europe that Israel is your home."

Two Jewish men emerging from the synagogue in central Paris under the eye of two rifle-wielding gendarmes were clear about the implications of the murderous attack on the kosher supermarket.

Itzhak, 24, who has lived in the Jewish quarter of the Marais in the 3rd Arrondissement all his life, said he knew "many" fellow Jews who were considering leaving France for Israel because of what they saw as a deepening seam of anti-Semitism in the country.

"Who has been attacked these last few days? It's cartoonists, it's journalists and it's Jews. Again the Jews have been targeted for nothing more than their name. It makes people concerned that perhaps this will never end. We are seeing a new persecution, perhaps. Many Jews are wondering whether to stay in France."

- Independent