France is home to roughly half-a-million Jews. The country’s Jewish community is the largest in Europe, and the third largest in the world behind Israel and the United States. You might assume then that Jewish life in France is flourishing. But you’d be wrong.
Over the weekend, news broke of the murder of Eyal Haddad, a Tunisian Jew living on the outskirts of Paris. What happened is still shrouded in mystery: the family’s lawyer denied earlier reports that the victim’s body had been burned and that the perpetrator had confessed to killing Haddad over a 100 euro debt, and because he was Jewish. But what we do know is this: Haddad was killed with an axe and a knife in a suspected anti-Semitic attack and his alleged killer appeared in a Facebook picture showing him burning an Israeli flag.
Until the country’s authorities confront that truth and do something about the tide of anti-Semitism, Jewish blood will continue to be spilled on French soil
If this was a one-off incident, it would be a tragedy.
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