Like any Jew living in France, Emilie Dahan was deeply shaken by last month’s attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a kosher supermarket. She wondered whether, after four generations in the country, rising anti-Semitism and the risk of more terrorism might drive her family from its shores.
“When the attacks happened, I thought, ‘This is it, the moment we all feared,’” the 40-year-old mother of three recalled. “Then something happened in me. Leave my
home, my life, my country? All of a sudden it seemed absurd. Deep inside, I am French, and the attacks made it clear to me.”
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, on Feb. 15.
Photographer: Abir Sultan/AP Photo
Even as synagogues, schools and cemeteries across Europe step up security, the vast majority of Jews in the region are staying put. Like Dahan, Jews from London to Berlin say their cultural, business and social ties trump fears of rising extremism such as the Paris attacks and shootings last week in Copenhagen that killed two people, including a Jewish man at a synagogue.
They offer a more nuanced picture than the one painted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Feb. 15 called for “the absorption of mass immigration from Europe” because Jews aren’t safe there.
True, more than 7,200 French Jews emigrated to Israel last year, according to the Jewish Agency, which manages migration—double the 2013 level—and after the attacks others are considering such a move. The 2014 figure represents about 1.5 percent of the nearly half-million Jews who reside in France, which is significant in terms of emigration, but means the vast majority of the community remains.
“We do see more and more Jews leaving France,” with some motivated at least in part by rising anti-Semitism, but also due to the stagnant economy, said Sergio DellaPergola, a demographer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yet “even in France, where it could be argued that the situation is the most precarious, it’s only a minority.”
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In most countries, it’s a far smaller minority. About 9,000 of western Europe’s 1.1 million Jews emigrated to Israel last year, while just 627 of the U.K.’s roughly 290,000 Jews—0.2 percent—made the move. And only 103 German Jews did so, or less than 0.1 percent of the country’s 120,000 Jewish residents.
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union have given new life to Berlin's Jewish community, which was almost wiped out by the Nazis. They’ve been augmented by some 17,000 Israeli citizens drawn to the German capital’s artsy, liberal atmosphere and cheap housing. In hip Prenzlauer Berg, the Rykestrasse synagogue—set aflame during Kristallnacht—has been restored to its pre-war beauty, as has the Moorish-style New Synagogue a few U-bahn stops away.
William Glucroft, a 29-year-old editor and translator from Connecticut, arrived in Berlin five years ago from Israel, where he had met a German woman vacationing in Haifa. Now he helps organize events at a local synagogue, which he says has been transformed from “a small group of aging men” to a growing, diverse community.
“The only person telling Jews to leave Europe is Netanyahu,” said Glucroft, who lives in a largely Muslim district. “If I felt unsafe here—and I don’t at all—Israel would be the last place I would go. Last time I checked more Jews were killed there by terrorist acts than anywhere in Europe.”
The outlier is France, which has Europe’s largest Jewish population as well as the largest proportion of Muslims. It has seen some of the region’s worst anti-Semitic violence in recent years, including a 2012 attack in Toulouse that left seven people dead. Since January’s attacks, Jewish sites in Paris have been guarded around the clock by soldiers with automatic rifles.
Yet when Netanyahu, visiting in the wake of the January violence, spoke at the Grand Synagogue of Paris, the congregation belted out the Marseillaise, France’s national anthem—a riposte to his suggestions that Jews flee.
“Integrating socially and economically in Israel is not easy,” said Jacques Bloch, 35, whose family has been near Strasbourg in the Alsace region for six generations. “Fear isn’t enough. One must have strong beliefs to make the move.”
Professional considerations weigh heavily on the determination to stay put in Europe. Benedetto Habib, a 51-year-old Milan film producer who worked on Italy’s entry for the Academy Awards, a drama called Human Capital, said he has no intention of leaving. Doing so would mean giving up a successful career, he said, and he doesn’t feel unsafe or unwelcome.
“Extremism just hasn’t taken root here,” Habib said. “Jews feel comfortable in Milan.”
Few European Jews would discount the importance of confronting anti-Semitism in poorly integrated Muslim communities. Although security is crucial, the long-term solution can only lie in cultural integration and education, said David Kat, a 43-year-old tech entrepreneur in Amsterdam who serves as treasurer to the board of the city’s Jewish museum. He’s a ninth-generation citizen of the Dutch capital, and said he doesn’t know anyone considering a move to Israel.
“We have a moral obligation to our youth to integrate kids whose parents or grandparents were born in the Arab world,” Kat said. Muslims are as much a “part of Dutch society” as Jews, he added. “It’s about living together.”
In London, Jewish life remains particularly vibrant. One example is the new JW3 cultural center, a sprawling, glass-fronted structure completed in 2013 at a cost of 32 million pounds ($50 million). It offers a frenetic events calendar, from the serious—a talk with Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel—to the frivolous, like “Skating, Dating and Mating” for singles on a temporary ice rink.
JW3’s blend of fitness classes, hipster-inflected arts programming and a well-reviewed Middle Eastern restaurant is catching on fast. Organizers expected 60,000 visitors in the first year of operation; more than 225,000 came.
“We are a reflection of a renaissance,” said JW3 Chief Executive Officer Raymond Simonson, who tweets under the handle @FatSideburns, a reference to his ample mutton chops. “I want us to be loud and proud.”