A record number of people arrived at an Israel-immigration fair in Paris on Sunday, indicating a renewed interest in aliya from the French Jewish community.
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky said: "Not since the long queues at the Israeli embassy in Moscow during the massive aliya (of Russian Jewry between 1904 - 1914) have I seen such widespread interest in aliya to Israel." More than 5,000 people have arrived at the fair, which was taking place the days of French general elections, to express an interest in relocating to Israel.
The French Jewish community is the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world after Israel and the US, numbering more than 500,000. The community has faced a recent wave of anti-Semitic attacks, mostly perpetrated by the country's vast Arab population protesting against perceived Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. In March, a gunman opened fire at a crowd outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, killing four people, among them three children.
The attack prompted National Union MK Yaakov Katz to call on all of France's Jews to immigrate to Israel. According to a survey by The Israel Project released in 2004, 26 percent of French Jews were contemplating emigration to Israel. There are already an estimated 100,000 Jews of French origin in Israel.
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