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Half of French People Adhere to Over 6 Antisemitic Prejudices, 12% Happy to See Jews Leave Country: Survey
Sign reading “+1000% of Antisemitic Acts: These Are Not Just Numbers” during a march against antisemitism, in Lyon, France, June 25, 2024. Photo: Romain Costaseca / Hans Lucas via Reuters Connect
Hostility toward the Jewish people has surged to alarming levels in France, where half the population adhere to more than six antisemitic prejudices and nearly one in five young people want to see the departure of Jews from the country, according to a new survey.
Ipsos, a market research and consulting firm, conducted the survey of the French public for the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), the main representative body of French Jews, to examine the country’s attitudes toward the Jewish community amid a surge in antisemitic hate crimes over the past year.
The findings, unveiled by CRIF on Thursday and first reported by the French news magazine Le Point, revealed a surge in antisemitic attitudes across France.
Among France’s general population, 12 percent of people are happy to see Jews leave the country, up from just 6 percent in 2020, according to the survey.
“It’s a terrifying figure,” CRIF president Yonathan Arfi told the radio station Europe 1 when asked about the finding.
The number goes up among people under the age of 35, of whom a striking 17 percent think that the departure of Jews from France would be good for the country.
“It is contrary to the historical trend,” Arfi told Le Point. “Young people are more receptive to antisemitic, Islamist, and conspiracy theories, which are invading social networks.”
As for people aged 18 to 24, only 53 percent think that the majority of Jews are well integrated into the population, compared to 84 percent of French people more broadly, the survey found.
Overall, nearly half (46 percent) of French people today adhere to more than six anti-Jewish prejudices, compared to 37 percent in 2020, according to the results. Meanwhile, almost a quarter of those surveyed think that Jews are not really French like the rest of their countrymen, an uptick of more than six points.
The numbers increase among backers of France’s main far-left and far-right political parties. Indeed, the survey found that 52 percent of those who support the far-right Rassemblement National (RN — “National Rally”) and 55 percent of those who support the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI — “France Unbowed”) adhere to at least six antisemitic stereotypes. And a third of LFI supporters indicated they adhere to at least nine such prejudices.
LFI is the largest member of the New Popular Front (NFP), an anti-Israel leftist coalition of political parties that came to power in France’s snap parliamentary elections in July. The coalition gained the most seats of any political bloc but not enough for a majority. Its leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, has been lambasted by French Jews as a threat to their community as well as those who support Israel.
“It seems France has no future for Jews,” Rabbi Moshe Sebbag of Paris’ Grand Synagogue told the Times of Israel following the ascension of the NFP in July’s elections. “We fear for the future of our children.”
According to the survey, 20 percent of LFI supporters consider the departure of Jews from France desirable, compared to 15 percent of those who back RN.
Similarly troubling, the results showed that 25 percent of LFI supporters have “sympathy” for Hamas, and 40 percent refuse to label the Palestinian Islamist group as a terrorist organization.
Hamas, which has been designated internationally as a terrorist group, launched the war in Gaza with its invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7. During the onslaught, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists murdered 1,200 people, mostly civilians, wounded thousands more, and kidnapped 251 hostages while perpetrating rampant sexual violence, including torture and gang rape.
The survey noted that one in two French people now suspect their Jewish fellow citizens of “double allegiance” to Israel — a reality that Arfi blamed in part on LFI’s fierce anti-Israel opposition.
“LFI has given antisemitism a political endorsement,” he told Le Point. “We observe this toxic porosity between criticism of Israel and the ostracization of French Jews. The Palestinian cause becomes a license to hate.”
The findings also showed that, among the French people surveyed, 64 percent believe that Jews have reason to be afraid of living in France, and 70 percent believe that the country has experienced an increase in antisemitism.
The survey results came as France has experienced a record surge of antisemitism in the wake of Hamas’s atrocities last Oct. 7, amid the ensuing war in Gaza. Antisemitic outrages rose by over 1,000 percent in the final three months of 2023 compared with the previous year, with over 1,200 incidents reported — greater than the total number of incidents in France for the previous three years combined.
This year, anti-Jewish hate crimes and demonstrations in France have continued to skyrocket.
Earlier this month, for example, a monument honoring victims of the Nazis located in eastern France was vandalized with graffiti reading “Nique Israël,” or “F—k Israel” in English.
Last month, a man wearing a sports jersey with the words “Anti-Jew” written in French was photographed riding the Paris metro, prompting an investigation by law enforcement and outcry from Jewish leaders who lamented what they described as public indifference to surging antisemitism in France.
Days earlier, a visibly Jewish teenager was assaulted by two youths as he was leaving a metro station in the northwest suburbs of Paris.
That incident followed three men brutally attacking a Jewish woman at the entrance to her home in Paris on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities. The victim stated that the assailants threatened her with a box knife, made antisemitic threats, and mentioned the events of last Oct. 7.
In September, a kosher restaurant in Villeurbanne, near the eastern city of Lyon, was defaced with red paint and tagged with the message “Free Gaza.”
The incident came days after French police arrested a 33-year-old Algerian man suspected of trying to set a synagogue ablaze in the southern French city of la Grande-Motte.
Two months earlier, an elderly Jewish woman was attacked in a Paris suburb by two assailants who punched her in the face, pushed her to the ground, and kicked her while hurling antisemitic slurs, including “dirty Jew, this is what you deserve.”
In another egregious attack that garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a different Paris suburb on June 15. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack. In response to the incident, French President Emmanuel Macron denounced the “scourge of antisemitism” plaguing his country.
Around the same time in June, an Israeli family visiting Paris was denied service at a hotel after an attendant noticed their Israeli passports.
In May, French police shot dead a knife-wielding Algerian man who set fire to a synagogue and threatened law enforcement in the city of Rouen.
One month earlier, a Jewish woman was beaten and raped in a suburb of Paris as “vengeance for Palestine.”
Such incidents are part of an explosion of antisemitic outrages across France that has continued since last Oct. 7.
In August, then-French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin warned that incidents targeting the country’s Jewish community spiked by about 200 percent since Jan. 1.
“Two-thirds of anti-religious acts … are against Jews,” he added, according to French broadcaster BFM TV.
Darmanin’s comments followed him stating weeks earlier that antisemitic acts in France have tripled over the last year. In the first half of 2024, 887 such incidents were recorded, almost triple the 304 recorded in the same period last year, he said.
Despite widespread concern among French Jews, senior officials including Macron have repeatedly said they are committing to combating antisemitism and supporting the country’s Jewish community.
According to Arfi, a whole-of-government response is needed to combat the surge in antisemitism, which he largely attributed to people spreading misleading information about the Israel-Hamas war and blaming Jews worldwide for false allegations leveled against Israel.
“The hysteria of the debate on Gaza has blown the last barriers,” Arfi observed, adding that elected officials are making the Palestinian cause “an electoral business” and using it for “criminal instrumentalization.”
“We need a systemic response,” he concluded.
The post Half of French People Adhere to Over 6 Antisemitic Prejudices, 12% Happy to See Jews Leave Country: Survey first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Most Jewish Voters Believe Trump Policies Fueling Antisemitism, Poll Finds
US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance arrive for a ceremony with the 2025 College Football Playoff National Champions Ohio State Buckeyes on the South Lawn of the White House on Monday, April 14, 2025. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.
Most Jewish voters in the US disapprove of President Donald Trump’s policy choices and have “negative assessments of his personal character,” according to a newly released poll.
A new nonpartisan group called the Jewish Voters Resource Center, which seeks to collect and disseminate data on Jewish voters, commissioned and published the survey, which was conducted by the polling firm GBAO Strategies from April 21 through May 1 among 800 registered Jewish voters.
Some of the terms which those polled most frequently applied to the president included “dangerous” (72 percent), “racist” (69 percent), “fascist” (69 percent), and, despite his administration’s efforts to counter anti-Jewish discrimination on university campuses, “antisemitic” (52 percent).
Respondents gave Trump an overall approval rating of 26 percent. This figure mirrors polling in recent years of partisan differences among Jews. A 2021 Pew poll found that 26 percent of Jews identified with the Republican Party.
The survey also showed continued worries about antisemitism, with 89 percent described as concerned and 62 percent “very concerned.” Antisemitism on college campuses also drew concerns from 77 percent, with 55 percent “very concerned.” The intensity of concerns showed a disparity with older Jewish respondents more worried than younger Americans.
The survey suggests that large numbers of Jews regard many Trump administration efforts to counter antisemitism as accelerants that will fuel more hate. Sixty-one percent said that deporting anti-Israel activists will make antisemitism worse, and 63 percent said that the ending of federal observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day will as well.
Last month, a survey conducted by the Mellman Group and published by the Jewish Electorate Institute found that an overwhelming majority of American Jews disapprove of Trump’s job performance thus far, including his efforts to combat antisemitism.
However, a poll commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) and conducted by Schoen Cooperman Research that was published weeks earlier found that most American adults, including college students, support the Trump administration’s cancellation of federal funding to universities which fail to address the campus antisemitism crisis. The poll also showed strong support for Trump’s policy of deporting campus activists who allegedly express support for the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
As for the latest survey published this week, 80 percent of respondents also said that billionaire technologist Elon Musk, head of the US Department of Government Efficiency, inflamed antisemitism with his unapologetic deployment of Holocaust jokes on his X social media platform and calls for Germans to move beyond guilt about the past. Vice President JD Vance also came in for criticism, with 76 percent saying his coziness with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party would increase hate against Jews.
The pollsters also found that Jewish attachment to Israel had dropped to levels seen before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terrorist strikes across southern Israel. Following the attack, 82 percent of respondents expressed strong emotional attachment. Sixty-nine percent now hold such views. Generational differences also appeared in the poll’s results, with younger Jews (55 percent for those under 35) describing attachment to Israel while 79 percent of those over 64 did.
Seventy-two percent of those polled also believe that resuming military action in Gaza will make it more likely the hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the Oct. 7 onslaught will die, while the other 28 percent sees further fighting as a path to freeing the hostages.
The survey found Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 34 percent positive and 61 percent negative, findings which the researchers called “consistent with his favorability ratings over the past five years.” Respondents also expressed similar disagreements over Netanayhu’s true motives for his military policy in Gaza, with 62 believing that he “resumed military action in Gaza for political reasons” while 38 percent regard his choices as driven by a sincere national security analysis.
“When Jews are looking at Israel and thinking about Israel, while they’re very attached to it, it’s very striking how negative the attitudes towards Netanyahu are,” said Jim Gerstein, a founding partner of GBAO Strategies.
:Part of what’s going on is that Jewish voters believe that the actions that the Trump administration is taking, statements that the president is making, statements and actions of others in his administration—that these things actually increase antisemitism,” Gerstein added. “It is very striking that a lot of things that are being done in the name of combating antisemitism, Jews in America actually believe that these things increase antisemitism, instead of reduce antisemitism.”
The survey includes a margin of error of 3.5 percent.
The researchers found that ideology in the Jewish community divided among 17 percent conservative, 34 percent moderate, and 46 percent liberal.
These cohorts then split into comparable partisan categories. In party identification, 59 percent aligned with the Democrats, 16 percent with the Republicans, and 25 percent rejected political tribalism, embracing an independent political identity. However, when GBAO Strategies pushed the independents to express which party they leaned toward, Democrat support rose to 69 percent, the Republicans increased to 23 percent, and the remaining authentic independents stood at 8 percent.
Jews saw greater unity in their negative view of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who 95 percent found unfavorable. They also expressed strong agreement in opposing making Canada a US state (93 percent), cutting funding for Medicaid (88 percent), taking over Greenland (84 percent), enacting a 145 percent tariff on all goods from China (77 percent), and transferring Palestinians to Arab countries so the US can control Gaza (74 percent).
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Online Antisemitism Watchdog Group Blasts Kanye West for Exploiting Social Media to ‘Make Racism Cool Again’
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, dressed in a full black leather KKK outfit during his interview with DJ Akademiks that was shared on YouTube on March 31, 2025. Photo: Screenshot
The founder of a nonprofit organization that serves as the world’s first live database of online antisemitism said on Tuesday that Ye’s new song “Heil Hitler” is the rapper’s latest effort to “make racism cool again,” and criticized X for allowing the musician to promote Jew-hatred.
Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, the founder and executive director of CyberWell — which focuses on combating online antisemitism, especially on social media — railed against Ye (who changed his name from Kanye West) the same day the Yeezy founder posted on X the messages “FREE GAZA” and “All racist allowed into the Nazi party.”
The self-described Nazi released last week a song titled “Heil Hitler,” which is the greeting in praise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler that is given as part of the Nazi salute. The song includes an audio clip of a German speech given by Hitler in 1935. A clip of far-right social media influencer Andrew Tate playing “Heil Hitler” in his car has garnered over 3 million views on X and was reposted by Ye, although the re-post has since been deleted.
On Wednesday, Ye shared on X a video of someone leaving a Chick-fil-A drive-thru on a motor vehicle while playing the “Heil Hitler” track, before parking in front of the fast food restaurant and continuing to play the song. The vehicle had a screen that showed the music video for Ye’s hateful song and the person sitting in the motor vehicle did the Nazi salute twice when a choir on the track sang, “Ni–a, Heil Hitler.”
“Ye’s latest hateful contribution to the world, the song entitled ‘Heil Hitler,’ is part of his unabashed campaign to make racism cool again,” Montemayor said. “By embedding Nazi glorification – including ‘All my ni–as Nazis, ni–a, Heil Hitler’ and quotes from a 1935 Adolf Hitler speech – in pop culture, Ye exploited the algorithmic charge and large reach of social media platforms to normalize and spread Jew-hatred to millions.”
“As a repeat offender, duping advertisers, the Super Bowl production, and abusing music and social media platforms, this moment should be met with swift and scalable action by all digital service providers with any Ye footprint,” Montemayor added. “But, most importantly, a succinct response is needed by the platform that has systematically granted Ye and other celebrity antisemites their largest audiences in the space — the platform formerly known as Twitter.”
Many others have previously criticized the Elon Musk-owned social media platform for not removing Ye from X because of his antisemitic actions. Earlier this year, Jewish actor David Schwimmer asked Musk, who acquired the company in late 2022, to ban rapper Ye from X because of his antisemitic comments and his decision to sell a shirt that features a Nazi swastika.
The groups Campaign Against Antisemitism and StopAntisemitism have both called on Musk to delete Ye’s account from X. StopAntisemitism said in part: “Ye has twice as many followers on X as there are Jews on earth. His obsession with us isn’t just deranged — it’s dangerous. Kanye is a deeply troubled man, but also a powerful one. Deplatform him before his violent rhetoric turns into violent action.”
Despite efforts by other social media platforms to ban the “Heil Hitler” song and music video, X has yet to delete the music video that Ye posted on his account last week. The clip has thus far garnered more than 9 million views.
In 2022, Ye was temporarily suspended from X when he made antisemitic remarks, but shortly after returned to the platform to share more hateful comments targeting Jews.
CyberWell works with leading social media platforms to identify and remove antisemitic content. Its artificial intelligence-powered technologies scan social media in English and Arabic for posts that promote antisemitism, Holocaust denial, and violence against Jews. CyberWell’s analysts review the harmful content and report it to platform moderators.
In regards to the song “Heil Hitler,” Spotify and SoundCloud have both removed Ye’s new track, but alternate versions and snippets of the song have been shared by Ye’s supporters and still appear on the platforms. The same is true on YouTube and Apple Music, where a Ye fan uploaded the song under the title “HH,” but it has since been removed. On Reddit, versions of the song were shared in subreddits dedicated to Ye and other rappers.
A Reddit spokesperson told NBC News the platform is actively working to remove uploads and posts related to the song. “Hate and antisemitism have absolutely no place on Reddit. We have strict rules against hateful content, “the spokesperson explained. “In line with our sitewide rules, we are removing the song and any celebration of its message.”
Meanwhile, comedian and actor Russell Brand shared the music video for “Heil Hitler” on his X account on Monday, and defended Ye in a post online and on his podcast last week. The host of “Stay Free with Russell Brand” said the song has “a good hook,” and that Ye is a “true artist” and “uncancellable.” Similar sentiments were expressed on X by far-right American political commentator Candace Owens.
Montemayor condemned several social media platforms for their inaction in removing Ye’s hateful “Heil Hitler” song, starting with X.
“While YouTube, Reddit, and TikTok made speedy and clear attempts to demonetize Ye’s accounts and remove the presence of the song at scale, X platformed this hatred for more than 6.5 million views,” she explained, before turning her attention to Facebook and Instagram. She said the Meta-owned social media platforms “failed to moderate this content and its reposted formats, despite clearly violating Holocaust-denial and distortion policies.”
“The comments sections, even to content condemning the song across social media platforms, has been rife with open Jew-hatred — another testament to the negligence of social media platforms to enforce their policies where they effect users most,” Montemayor added. “The response, or lack thereof, on the part of the social media platforms to this latest celebrity-led assault of hatred is a litmus test for how seriously they take the issue of antisemitism and platform safety. CyberWell will continue to assist our Trusted Partners in optimizing their response to Ye’s latest abomination with clear and expert antisemitism compliance guidance.”
The post Online Antisemitism Watchdog Group Blasts Kanye West for Exploiting Social Media to ‘Make Racism Cool Again’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Belgian Police Raid Mohels’ Homes in Antwerp, Sparking Outrage in Jewish Community
Police pictured at an Anderlecht supporters village at the Atomium, before the final of the ‘Croky Cup’ Belgian soccer cup, between Club Brugge and RSC Anderlecht, May 4, 2025. Photo: BELGA/HATIM KAGHAT via Reuters Connect
Belgian police raided the homes of several mohels in Antwerp, a northern Belgian city, seizing their circumcision tools after a local Jewish rabbi filed a complaint — an incident that has sparked outrage within the local Jewish community.
A mohel is a trained practitioner who performs the ritual circumcision in Jewish tradition known as a bris.
On Wednesday, Belgian authorities raided three locations in the Jewish Quarter, searching for knives and other equipment allegedly used in unauthorized or illegal circumcisions. However, local police confirmed that no arrests were made during the operation.
Among the homes raided by the Belgian police was that of Rabbi Aharon Eckstein, a highly experienced mohel and a prominent leader within the Antwerp Jewish community.
In an interview with the publication JNS, Eckstein said the raid took place around 5 am.
“They didn’t say much. They just looked through the place and took my kit,” the Jewish leader said.
He also expressed his intention to continue performing circumcisions, as he had not received any instruction to stop such practice.
According to a police report, the searches were ordered by a judge following a complaint filed in 2023 by Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman against Eckstein and other mohels within the Jewish community.
Prosecutors have been investigating illegal circumcisions in the country since last fall, amid concerns from local authorities that Jewish circumcisions are being carried out by individuals without proper medical training.
In his complaint, Friedman accused six mohels, whom he identified to the police, of endangering infants by performing the metzitzah b’peh ritual, in which the mohel uses his mouth to suction blood from the circumcision area.
However, Eckstein and other rabbis, along with parents of children circumcised by them, have denied such accusations, insisting that they do not perform this practice.
In Antwerp, Friedman is known for publicly criticizing several customs that are important to ultra-Orthodox Jews, who represent the majority of the city’s 18,000 Jewish residents.
The European Jewish Association (EJA) condemned the government’s handling of the issue, claiming it threatens freedom of religion.
“This constitutes yet another red line crossed in the intimidation of Jewish religious figures in Belgium,” Rabbi Mencahem Margolin, chairman of the EJA, said in a post on the social media platform X.
“Following the ban on shechita [kosher ritual slaughter], the harassment of mohels represents a further red line and a clear warning sign to Belgian Jews and the Belgian government. Freedom of religion must be upheld!” he continued.
The European Jewish Association (EJA) strongly condemns the police raid on the Mohels’ premises in Antwerp this morning.
EJA Chairman, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, say that this constitutes yet another red line crossed in the intimidation of Jewish religious figures in Belgium.…— EJA – EIPA (@EJAssociation) May 14, 2025
Despite several attempts to ban it across Europe, ritual circumcision remains legal in all European countries, though many, including Belgium, limit the practice to licensed surgeons and often perform it in a synagogue.
Last year, the Irish government arrested a London-based rabbi for allegedly performing a circumcision without the required medical credentials, marking the first arrest of a rabbi in Europe in years related to a bris.
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