Nadene Goldfoot
Moroccan Jews
At the turn of the 21st century, France had an estimated 500,000 to 600,000 Jews, most of them Sephardic and of North African origin. This is the second-largest population outside of Israel, and after that in the United States. A quarter of the historic Ashkenazi Jewish population in France was murdered in the Holocaust of World War II. After the war, the French government passed laws to suppress antisemitic discrimination and actions, and to protect Jews in the country.
The North African countries with historical ties to France are Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. These three nations were all part of French North Africa (Afrique du Nord française) during the colonial era. While France had a presence in other parts of Africa, these three Maghreb countries were specifically grouped together under this designation.
Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) French soldier, a captain on the French general staff, was accused---partly from motives of anti-Semitism--of having sold secret documents to Germany and in 1894, was condemned to life imprisonment, the verdict being influence by invalid documents which had not been communicated to the defense. He protested his innocence both of his public degradation in Paris and from his cell in Devil's Island off the coast of French Guiana, but the campaign demanding of a revision of the sentence, instigated by his brother Mathieu and the publicist, Bernard Lazare, initially met a series of rebuffs. The real traitor, ESTERHAZY, was acquitted by a further tribunal in 1898."The Dreyfus Affair" stirred and divided all France; the Catholic clergy, the military, and the right-wing refused to recognize a miscarriage of justice which would lower the prestige of the army. He was finally pardoned by President Loubet, and the Court of Cassation pronounced him completely innocent in 1906.
Hyper Cacher supermarket shooting, killing 4 young men there-victims of Anti-Semitism in France
Yohan Cohen, 20, worked at the kosher supermarket
Philippe Braham, 45, was a business manager for an IT firm
Yoav Hattab, 21, was a student and the youngest supermarket victim
Francois-Michel Saada, 64, was a former pension fund manager
In the 1950s and 1960s, many Sephardic Jews emigrated to France from countries such as Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, which had gained independence from colonial rule through extended warfare against France. The wars for independence left both sides with considerable bitterness, and Algeria was immersed in civil war for years after gaining independence.
French Jews have immigrated to Israel throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, with significant waves occurring in the 1950s and again in the 2010s. The most recent surge, particularly from 2014 onwards, has been driven by a combination of factors including rising antisemitism in France and a desire to build a future in Israel.
Jews left North Africa as relations in the area became more strained during the Six-Day War of 1967 between Israel, Egypt and other Arab forces. This increased tensions across the Arab world. The rise of the Second Intifada, beginning in 2000, contributed to rising tensions with Arab Muslims and Jews feeling less welcome in North African nations. Most have now left the region.
Beginning in the late 20th century, more Arabs from North African nations began to emigrate to France for economic reasons and to escape civil wars in their home nations. Historically numerous North African Arabs had lived and worked in France since before World War II. The Muslim community built the Grand Mosque in Paris in 1929. Its Imam (Si Kaddour Benghabrit) and numerous members helped protect Jews from deportation during the Holocaust..
- 2013: 3,120 French Jews immigrated to Israel, representing a 63% increase over the previous year.
- 2014: Over 5,000 French Jews immigrated to Israel, with 6,655 arriving during the first 11 months, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
- 2015: This was a record-breaking year for French Aliyah, with 7,892 immigrants arriving, according to The Jewish Agency for Israel.
- 2016: The number dropped to approximately 5,200.
- 2017: Roughly 3,500 French Jews made Aliyah.
- 2019: 2,227 individuals immigrated from France, a 7.8% decrease from the 2018 figure of 2,416 immigrants.
- 2023: 1,100 departures, described as a "historically low number" by the director of the Jewish Agency for Israel in France.
- 2024 (projected/estimated): The Jewish Agency projected Aliyah numbers from France to range from 3,000 to 3,500. However, in the first half of 2024, the number of olim from France was 506. The total figure for 2024 was expected to be around 2,000.
In the mid-1990s historians renewed a critical study of National Socialism, collaboration, and the responsibility of the Vichy Regime for deportation of Jews during the Holocaust. They contested the book Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (1972) (published in French as La France de Vichy) by American historian Robert Paxton, who had said the Vichy Regime cooperated with Nazi Germany.
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