French Jewish immigrants in Israel grieving after attacks

This article originally appeared on The Media Line.

Three months ago Marc Benetasse moved from Paris to Israel, changing his first name to Shlomo. He found a job playing piano at a restaurant in Jerusalem. He said he is devastated by the attacks in Paris.

“I just broke down and cried,” Benetasse told The Media Line. “I know all of those places well. I am a musician, and a lot of my friends go to concerts. I was so worried that some of my friends would be there.”

He spent the hours after the attacks in Paris frantically telephoning relatives in Paris, including his parents, brother and two sisters, as well as his friends.

“Everyone was OK, but the government said they should just stay inside and they didn’t go out the whole day,” he said. “It’s like being at war and it’s very stressful.”

Benetassse said he moved to Israel mostly for his children’s future. In Paris, he said, they went to an Orthodox Jewish school and since a gunman killed a teacher and three students in the French city of Toulouse in 2012, there have been armed guards outside the school. He said he knows there are attacks in Israel too, but both the army and the population seems more prepared here, he said.

Benetasse is part of the wave of French immigration that brought more than 7200 French Jews to immigrate to Israel last year, more than double the previous year, according to Avi Mayer, a spokesman at the Jewish Agency, the quasi-governmental body responsible for immigration to Israel. A similar number is expected this year.

Like all Jews who move to Israel, French Jews receive automatic citizenship and a basket of financial incentives including a rent subsidy, tax-free importation of goods and free Hebrew classes. Mayer said there has been some bureaucratic problems with getting college degrees or professional licenses from France recognized in Israel, although he said the government is working to solve the situation.

There are about 150,000 French Jews living in Israel today. Many have moved to the coastal town of Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, which has been dubbed the “French Riviera.” Interest in immigration shot up after January’s shooting at the kosher supermarket that killed four French Jews.

“We expect the steady increase in aliyah (immigration to Israel) from France that we saw for the past two years to continue for the foreseeable future,” Mayer told The Media Line. “The attacks in Paris in January did result in an increased interest in aliyah, but we have not seen that translated into concrete numbers. Whether that happens down the line depends on Israel’s ability to put in place a comprehensive plan to address education, housing and employment.”

He said that the French immigration to Israel has been successful, with most of the immigrants finding jobs in their fields and staying in Israel.

Lara Maruni, a young mother who sat in a café feeding her infant son, moved to Israel from Paris five years ago on her own, at age 18.

“All my life I was educated about Zionism and I wanted to be here,” she told The Media Line.

She said she was not surprised by the attacks, as the number of Muslims in France had increased dramatically in past years. She said she often disagreed with the French government’s policies, believing they favored the Palestinians over Israel, but she was still “very sad” about the attacks.

“I know all of the places where the attacks took place – I used to go to many of them with my friends,” she said. “We never used to worry about terrorism. Now Paris will never be the same.”

She said that the fact that the attacks took place on Friday night, when many Jews, whether Orthodox or not, would be home having Sabbath dinner with their families, made it less likely that Jews would be killed. Reports from Paris said that only two Jews were believed to be among the dead.

Soon after Maruni moved to Israel, her father Dov Atlani followed. He had served in the Israeli army, and then moved to Paris, planning to come back in a year or two. It took 35 years, but he now lives in Jerusalem, and works as the music director for Music Square in Jerusalem, a program that brings musicians to play in local restaurants and will open a museum and music school soon.

“Europe has lost its Judea-Christian character,” he told The Media Line. “There is no future for young people in France.”

While his two younger children, and their children, are in Israel, his oldest son remains in Paris.

“My son feels like his country is falling apart,” he said. “At the same time he doesn’t see his future in Israel. You have to really feel a connection to the land to live here.”