--- In [email protected], "coshlnx" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Rod Kukurudz decided to uproot his family from a comfortable life in > France to Surfside when his then 16-year-old daughter, Audrey, came > home one night in 2005 -- upset and fearful. > > "Dad," she told him, "now even if it's hot I have to wear a scarf to > hide my Star of David," while riding the Paris Metro. > > French Jews living in South Florida told The Miami Herald that > hostility from Islamic militants in France after the Sept. 11, > 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States spurred them to > leave. Departures surged after last year's abduction and death of > Ilan Halimi in France. > > The 23-year-old Halimi, a French Jew of Moroccan parents, was > kidnapped Jan. 21, 2006, by a gang of youths calling themselves > the `Barbarians." > > "The atmosphere created by that episode, plus other incidents and > the general hostility of Muslims in France toward Jews, is what's > behind my decision to leave," said Kukurudz, who now lives with > his wife and their three daughters, including Audrey, in Surfside. > > Vanessa Elmaleh is among a growing number of South Florida > immigration attorneys helping French Jews secure U.S. visas -- > but not necessarily asylum. > > "Asking for asylum can be risky," said Elmaleh, a French Jew > herself. ``If they deny your petition, they can deport you." > > Immigration court figures show a slight uptick in the number of > asylum applications from French nationals starting in 2003 -- but > those figures do not specify whether applicants were French Jews. > South Florida immigration attorneys say the majority of French > Jews are arriving on immigrant, investor and business visas. > > Kukurudz, for example, obtained an investor visa with Elmaleh's > help and now runs Citizen Events, organizing events for companies > and organizations. > > Pascal Cohen left his family behind in France and arrived in > Aventura a few weeks ago on a business visa to open a South Florida > subsidiary of a high-end chocolate brand called Cote de France. His > wife and two young daughters plan to leave France and join him later > this year. > > There are no official U.S. government figures on the number of > French Jews here, but officials in U.S. Jewish organizations said > it could be anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 in South Florida -- mostly > Miami-Dade. > > "I would say they're in the thousands now," said Mendy Levy, a rabbi > at The Shul synagogue in Surfside. > > "There is no question of an increase in the number of French Jews in > South Florida, and there's an expectation that that rate of increase > will accelerate," said Jacob Solomon, executive vice president of > the Greater Miami Jewish Federation. 'French Jews see the > handwriting on the wall and say, `We're not going to wait until > it's too late.' " > > None of the French Jews interviewed was attacked in France, but all > expressed fears the Halimi incident was a preview of more militant > violence to come. > > The latest State Department human rights report, issued last week, > cited more anti-Semitic incidents in France during the first nine > months of 2006 than during the same period in 2005 -- but fewer > than in the first nine months of 2004. <snip>
I suspect that the real story behind this story is in the last paragraph above. There has been *no real change* in the number of anti-Jewish incidents in France. What has happened is that a number of people who wanted to emigrate to the U.S., and were faced with quotas and heavy bureaucracy, have discovered an easier way of doing so -- claim that they are being persecuted and claim asylum. I live in France. I watch the papers here. Incidents of anti-Semitism are well-covered when they happen. Such incidents are rare, and when they happen they are pros- cecuted to the max. Sadly, a number of them (six at least in the three years I've been here) are even *fictional*. In one such fictional incident that made headlines, a Jewish girl claimed to have been assaulted on a well-lit train by a gang of Arabic toughs. After the investigation, it turned out that the girl, out past her curfew with her boyfriend, made the entire incident up in order to stay out of trouble with her strict parents. There is another factor that, in my opinion, leads to stories like these, and that is the unreasoning paranoia and self-importance that some people -- of ANY religion and nationality -- have developed in the face of world terrorism. When I worked as a consultant in the midwest (Minneapolis and Madison, Wisconsin, hardly backwater towns), I encountered people who worked in the insurance companies for which I consulted who were *afraid* to go about the daily routine of leading their lives, *for fear of being killed by terrorists*. They drove straight to work and straight home afterwards. They no longer shopped in shopping malls, and they had all their groceries delivered to their houses so that they didn't need to leave them to go to the store. And this was ONE FULL YEAR after 9/11. My suspicion is that a number of people who think like this have figured out that it is easier to emigrate to the U.S. if they *glorify* their paranoia about being persecuted, when in fact -- like all of the families described above -- they have never actually *experienced* any of this persecution that they claim to be fleeing. It's all in their heads. But in this case, it plays to the current state of mind of the press, and of the U.S. government itself.
