French Jews are increasingly weighing leaving their country as advocacy groups warn antisemitism in France is morphing into widespread discrimination.
A combination of factors has led to antisemitism being normalized in new ways, particularly in work and educational arenas, according to data and numerous interviews conducted by the Washington Examiner. Escalating political instability, which is weakening institutions, and the rise of a radicalized antisemitic Islamist faction in French society are contributing factors that are leading Jews to alter their behavior as a self-protection mechanism, hide their ethnic and religious identities, limit activities in the public arena, and even consider leaving their homes altogether, human rights organizations and Jewish advocacy organizations reported.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, which handles “Aliyah” applications, or requests from Jews to immigrate to Israel, has seen a surge of inquiries from France. There was a 400% increase in Aliyah applications from France last year, according to the agency’s analysis. That number compares to a 70% increase from the United States and Canada.
The total proportion of French Jews considering leaving their country stands at 52%, according to Fondapol and AJC Paris’s 2024 survey of antisemitism in France. An analysis conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, or FRA, also concluded last year that more than half of respondents had either emigrated or considered emigration in the five years prior to the survey. Of those, 41% said they considered doing so because they don’t feel safe living in their country as a Jew, and 32% stated concerns about not being able to live an openly Jewish life.
“People are not just curious but genuinely considering aliyah,” Shay Felber, deputy director-general of the Jewish Agency, told the Jerusalem Post, adding that rising interest is matched by increasing rates of actual immigration.
“In France, we’ve doubled the number of immigrants compared to last year, reaching over 2,000 this year compared to 1,000 last year,” he said.
Over the summer, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington CEO Gil Preuss accompanied a group of over 100 such emigres from Paris to Israel. Preuss said during an interview that he heard from French Jews, such as a university student union leader, that they are becoming increasingly isolated. It’s a “guilty by association” ideology that has led to a broader trickle-down effect of wider discrimination, he said, explaining that residents who might not necessarily harbor antisemitic views are feeling increasingly pressured by anti-Zionist factions not to befriend Jews or frequent Jewish events due to accusations they are “pro-Zionist.”
His worries come as France is home to the third-largest Jewish population in the world, making human rights trends in the country a leading indicator of attitudes toward Jews in Europe.
Preuss said many of those he escorted from France to Israel were families who say their children are being subjected to antisemitism, particularly in the education system.
“A lot of kids were between the ages of 6 and 12, 6 and 14, and they probably experienced a variety of antisemitism, and just decided that it was time to move,” he said. “We had some families who said that in public schools, increasingly, Jewish kids may not be invited to birthday parties or other types of people not wanting to associate with members of the Jewish community.”
“It’s not so much the statements that people make or the acts that they do. It’s the increasing exclusion of Jews from society,” Preuss added.
FRA communications chief Nicole Romain referenced research from the EU’s only human rights institution that “confirms the concern about rising antisemitism.”
“We had examples in our surveys where Jews said, ‘Well, when we call in to a restaurant to book a table, we generally don’t give our family name. We just give our first name,” she said during an interview. “So this is one of the indicators as well of how they protect themselves or protect their identity of being Jew.”
Mounting fears over Jewish exclusion from society come amid data from the FRA indicating 43% of French Jews avoid certain neighborhoods and local areas because they “do not feel safe there as a Jew.” The Fondapol-AJC Paris survey found 44% of Jews in France who wear distinctive religious symbols have stopped wearing them in public spaces since Oct. 7 amid attacks. One in 5 has removed their mezuzah from homes, and 16% have changed their name on delivery apps for fear it might betray their identity or religion and lead to an attack. Since 2023, another 33% of French Jews have reduced or stopped using Uber services.
Twenty percent of European Jews in FRA’s survey said they felt discriminated against for being Jewish, mostly in educational and work settings. Roughly 4 out of 10 reported they are “rarely” or “never” open about being Jewish at work or school, with 33% and 41% stating they frequently conceal their identity at work and school, respectively. Seventy-six percent reported hiding their identity at least occasionally, up from 30% in 2013. Another 34% avoid visiting Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe there as Jews, up from 23% just over a decade ago. As a reaction to online antisemitism, 24% avoid posting content that would identify them as Jewish, 23% say that they limited their participation in online discussions, and 16% reduced their use of certain platforms, websites, or services.
AJC Vice President of Europe Anne-Sophie Sebban-Becache, who most recently led AJC Paris, highlighted recent multiple incidents that have triggered concerns that France is moving from relatively “standard” antisemitism to a widening acceptance of broader discrimination.
“What we’ve seen during the summer in France … is this new web of antisemitic incidents, where it’s not only pure hatred like it used to be. It’s not only like attacks on goods or persons, violent attacks, or, you know, the accusation of genocide. It’s now like discrimination,” she told the Washington Examiner. “And this is something really new for France because Jews were facing antisemitism — so, hate — but they were not facing discrimination or exclusion.”
The incidents named by Sebban-Becache included a group of French Jewish teenagers who were expelled from a Paris-bound flight over the summer, an incident in which French left-wing party La France Insoumise in April called for a ban on Israeli pop star Eyal Golan’s concert in Paris, and accusations that a leisure park in southern France refused to admit a group of 150 Israeli children in August. She also referenced allegations surrounding incidents at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in which students created a group chat on Instagram that excluded students based on Jewish-sounding names and a controversy that sparked when a student created a poll in a WhatsApp group chat titled “For or Against Jews?”
“This is showing you the trends. It shows that there is some openness to being antisemitic, like when you go to the point that they feel perfectly OK to say that they don’t accept Jews in certain spaces,” the AJC director said. “For me, it’s showing that we have entered a new phase.”
The FRA’s Romain noted 2025 data from the Service for the Protection of the Jewish Community in France showing that recorded antisemitic acts stabilized in 2024, at 1,570 compared to a record high of 1,676 the previous year. Still, the 2024 numbers mark a surge compared to incidents recorded the year before, when the SPJC reported under 450 antisemitic acts. And critics warn that data on anti-Jewish discrimination remain incomplete, noting that many incidents go unreported due to fears of retaliation or the belief that doing so will change nothing.
Additionally, only acts reported through police reports are counted in data collection examining discrimination against Jews, meaning the methodology may underestimate the true extent of antisemitism, according to the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
For instance, only 49% of incidents of antisemitic violence and 11% of antisemitic discrimination were reported by European Jews between 2023 and 2024, according to the FRA. In the Fondapol-AJC Paris survey sample, just 14% of the 83% of French Jews who reported having been the victim of antisemitic attacks had filed a police complaint.
Jewish advocacy groups still sounded notes of optimism about France during interviews. The community is resilient, they say, and has become more tight-knit in the wake of anti-Israel sentiment sparked by the country’s sweeping military response to Hamas after the 2023 attack.
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But Sebban-Becache warned red lights are blinking, suggesting there are certain similarities between the antisemitism rising in Europe and the hostile environment Jews faced in the years leading up to the Holocaust. Narratives that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians living in Hamas-occupied Gaza have justified increasingly normative discrimination against Jews, she added, as critics use tactics observed “back in the ’30s with propaganda … when it has become a legitimate and even so-called moral battle to fight against the Jews.”
“The form is different, but the mechanism is the same,” she said. “The accusation of Israel being a genocidal state and Zionists being a genocidal people — it’s the modern way to dehumanize Jews, to make it legitimate to target them.”
