SPECIAL REPORT: French Jews caught between a rock and hard place after election shock

French Jews are in a quandary after the second round of voting in Sunday’s snap election led to the unexpected defeat of Marine le Pen’s hard-right National Rally party.

The defeat came at a cost: success for the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has previously called antisemitism in France “residual”, and frequently criticised those demonstrating against antisemitism.

Robert Ejnes, chief executive of Crif, the representative body of French Jewry, told Jewish News that French law does not permit sampling of voting by religion, colour or race. But while he believed that most French Jews had voted centrist, “we have quite a number of French Jews who favoured the extreme right and did not agree with us”.

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By “us”, Ejnes meant the leaders of Crif, the Consistoire, which represents the synagogues, the Fonds Social, the main welfare grouping, and the chief rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia. On the Friday before the second round of voting, the four men published an open letter, urging French Jews not to vote for extremes.

The letter said: “We do not agree to associate with those who tend to exclude or stigmatise our neighbours, as well as with those who set our society ablaze by propagating hatred and antisemitism, or so called anti-Zionism.

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“No, populism or nationalism have never in history been a bulwark against antisemitism nor have they brought peace and serenity.

“No, antisemitism is neither “residual” nor “contextual”, as some have dared to assert.

“To give the country the possibility of public action and rediscover the hope of saving perspectives, we are choosing the universal and humanist values which are at the heart of Judaism, as well as our republican pact. In conscience, we believe that this cannot be done today either with the RN [Le Pen’s party] or with LFI [Mélenchon’s party]”.

Ejnes said this middle ground stance had been praised by some, but he acknowledged that those Jews who had voted for Marine le Pen had done so because since October 7 “the RN was the only one which was very openly supportive of Israel and critical of Hamas”.

Moshe Sebbag, rabbi of Paris’s Great Synagogue, the Synagogue de la Victoire, told the Times of Israel that “it seems France has no future for Jews,” and said he advised young French Jews to leave for Israel.

“But people my age, who are 50, 60, we’ve made our life here and we fear for the future of our children,” he said, noting that his assessment was not due solely to the left-wing bloc’s success, but to the mainstreaming of antisemitism in general in France.

Ejnes, however, said that this was Rabbi Sebbag’s personal opinion, and that, moreover, he was Israeli. He said that the main surge in aliyah from France to Israel had began after the Toulouse shootings in 2012, adding: “Yes, people are talking about aliyah and opening files with the Jewish Agency, but we are not the Titanic yet.” However, one report said that in the 48 hours after the Sunday vote, 2,000 files had been opened with the Jewish Agency in Paris.

Moshe Sebbag, rabbi of Paris’s Great Synagogue, the Synagogue de la Victoire, told the Times of Israel that “it seems France has no future for Jews,” and said he advised young French Jews to leave for Israel.

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, a poll from the American Jewish Committee in Europe says that 92 per cent of French Jews believe that France Unbowed [Mélenchon’s party] has “contributed” to rising antisemitism. Government statistics say that in the first three months of 2024 there was a rise of 300 per cent from 2023 in antisemitic incidents.

The renowned public intellectual Bernard Henri-Lévy posted on Twttter/X: “The left is once again kidnapped by the infamous Mélenchon. Divisive language. Hate of the republic on the lips. Around him right now are some incarnations of the new antisemitism. A chilling moment. A stain: Continue to fight against these people”.

Robert Ejnes said that Sunday’s result showed that while the French wanted more security and had other domestic concerns, “they were not ready to give the keys to the extreme right”. Nevertheless, he believed that people did not trust the extreme left and described Mélenchon as “exactly like Corbyn”. He hoped that in the coming days and weeks the left could put together a coalition which excluded the extremists of Mélenchon’s party.

In a 2017 speech, Mélenchon called France Jews “an arrogant minority that lectures to the rest.” In an earlier speech he celebrated anti-Israel protesters days after some of them stormed a synagogue, condemning only French Jews who demonstrated to support Israel.