Rising Anti-Semitism In France;How Will The French Deal With The Problem.

Some people in France hope the outrage over the killing of 85-year-old Mireille Knoll may turn the tide against an upsurge in anti-Semitism in the country. Others are not so sure. Elizabeth Bryant reports from Paris.

Parisians braved blustery winds and returned to the streets this week, not to denounce a spate of terror attacks in recent years, but the older scourge of anti-Semitism that some say is taking on a new, increasingly violent turn.
The sea of protesters Wednesday night included Jews and Muslims, rabbis and school children, who marched shoulder-to-shoulder from the Place de La Nation to the modest apartment where 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was stabbed and then burnt last week, in what police believe was an anti-Semitic attack.
For some, the throng amounted to an affirmation of the country's essential values, unbroken by waves of terrorism and hate crimes. But the march did not necessarily resonate in the gritty suburbs circling the capital and other parts of France, where radical Islam and untended grievances have helped to craft a new, more violent form of anti-Semitism.
The march also took on political overtones, as protesters booed and heckled far left and far right political leaders who briefly joined the crowd. "I think it's high time that Jews make some noise and act," Alain Beit, who represents a Jewish LGBT association, told said. "Anti-Semitism is strong, and things are getting more and more dangerous. Now there is noise, but what is the next step?"

The protests united campaigners from all walks of life, but many want to know how politicians plan to combat anti-Semitism

Two men have been arrested over the killing of Knoll, who escaped the horrific 1942 Vel' d'Hiv roundup of roughly 13,000 Jews. Their deportation to Nazi concentration camps — with some help from police in occupied France — remains engraved in French history. Just like the plaques outside Paris elementary schools, where Jewish children were shipped away during World War II, most never to return.
An uptick in violence
Knoll's killing appears eerily similar to that of 65-year-old Orthodox Jew Sarah Halimi last year, who was beaten and thrown out of her window. A judge last month confirmed Halimi's killing was fuelled by anti-Semitism. The attacks are only two examples of several particularly horrific hate crimes in recent years targeting France's 550,000-strong Jewish community, the largest in Western Europe.
Indeed, daily violence against Jews rose by 22 percent in 2017 compared to the year before, according to French Interior Ministry statistics. French Jews have also been immigrating to Israel in record numbers in recent years. The Jewish Agency recorded 20,000 making the Aliyah [the return from the diaspora to Israel — the ed.] between 2014 and 2016.