French Jewish community ponders its future after Paris attacks
In the kosher Au Club Market grocery on Monday, the teaching assistant from the Jewish school in the Paris district of Montrouge fishes out her smartphone and hits play. The sounds of gunfire and children crying resonate in the quiet of the store, where teaching assistant Priscilla B is doing her lunchtime shopping. “I held my phone out of the window to record it,” she says.
Immediately after Thursday’s attack, in which French jihadi Amédy Coulibaly gunned down 27-year-old police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe only about 100 yards from the school, the 200 children were barricaded inside by staff for the rest of the day.
France’s Jewish community, estimated at about 600,000 people, has been living on its nerves for years and the number emigrating to Israel last year doubled to 14,000.
After Coulibaly’s shooting and deadly hostage-taking which left four Jewish shoppers at a kosher supermarket dead, French Jews are again reviewing their options with alarm. The funerals of the four French victims – Yoav Hattab, 21, Yohan Cohen, 20, Philippe Braham, 45 and Francois-Michel Saada, 64 – are taking place in Israel on Tuesday.
more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/13/french-jewish-community-ponders-future-after-paris-attacks
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