Leaving France for Israel

"To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray; the state of Israel is your home."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

"I think that what we are seeing now is the old Zionism, the idea that the only place to be is Israel."
"Aliyah is wonderful. We would love to have more Jews in Israel. But I'd also like to have strong Jews all around the world I think that it is self-defeating for us to tell them to pack their bags and leave France."
Smadar Bar-Akova, executive director, JCC Global

"I don't think the European situation is such that it requires a massive exodus to Israel. Not only is the government [in France] not anti-Semitic, the French public and the press are not anti-Semitic either. It is not comparable to the 1930s."
Elie Barnavi, history professor, Tel Aviv University

Life goes on at this Jewish bakery in the Marais, a traditionally Jewish quarter in Paris, France, Jan. 11, 2015. Julien Pebrel—MYOP for TIME

There is no agreement between Jewish intellectuals, politicians, academics or journalists about whether Europe's wholesale embrace of Muslim migration to the West to escape the religious oppression and sectarian violence of their homelands spells the death knell of Europe as a safe haven for Jews who have lived in Europe's countries for millennia. Spain has recently invited descendants of former Spanish citizens who were expelled from Spain in 1492 to renew their Spanish citizenship.

This would not necessarily only be Jews, but largely Jews who were given the impossible option to either convert to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition, and become Conversos, or to leave their country of origin. Historically, when countries of Europe have found themselves floundering financially they have welcomed Jews back, dependent on their financial acumen to aid the country in recovering its economic balance.

Spain's economy is in fairly dire straits, unemployment is high, particularly among young men, and perhaps it is this recall of the historical belief that the presence of Jews with their facility for economic management might aid their ailing economy.

France's long historical Jewish presence is one the country would be loathe to part with. But in the last decade or so as the country became the target of emigrating Muslims to render it the European country with the largest Muslim population, the security of French Jews has become fragile.

Muslim anger is swift to rise whenever the State of Israel responds to Palestinian provocations from Gaza primarily through the lobbing of rockets by Hamas or Islamic Jihad resulting in an defensive invasion from the IDF seeking to quell the violence against Israeli citizens. On those occasions Jews living in France become targets for violence, their synagogues fire-bombed, their children targeted for murder.

According to Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the arrival of French Jews represents "a unique historical phenomenon" with its unique challenges for Israel. "We are moving from an aliyah of rescue to an aliyah of free choice", he says. Many French Jews who are skilled professionals arriving in Israel discover that their professional academic degrees are not recognized in Israel. Leading to doctors, lawyers, architects, for example, working outside their profession.

"You have to lower your standards", advised Jean-Charles Bensoussan, 62, a French-trained doctor who came to Israel five months earlier, now working as a dentist. A French accountant in Israel, he said, works as a bookkeeper; an international textile merchant now operates a call centre. Salaries are lower than in France. Diplomas and licenses to practise are not transferable to Israel.

And while the government of Israel provides a little help to immigrants; some job counselling, a break on import duties in the purchase of an automobile, low-interest mortgages, and six months of Hebrew lessons, for people emigrating from France to Israel, the change in their lifestyles and their professional expectations can be another shock on top of that of leaving their country of origin where they no longer feel safe and secure.

To arrive at a country where Jews are everywhere the majority. From France where the large Muslim European population threatens the stability of the country that values secularism -- and creates issues of anti-Semitism for French Jews -- to Israel, surrounded by Muslim countries implacably restive at the presence of a Jewish nation within a geography they jealously guard as consecrated to Islam.

A tradeoff that seems in some measure, like a deal with the Devil.