The Departure of European Jewry

Michael L.

{Cross-posted at Vocal Europe.}

Just as significant percentages of the Arab nation are on the march into Europe - taking the Middle East with them - so a significant percentage of European Jews are packing it in for Israel.  This past year is a record among French Jews for the making of aliyah, i.e., Jews returning to the Jewish national home.

In fact, French aliyah is up 118 percent.

Does anyone doubt that there is a direct correlation between Arab-Muslim immigration into Europe and Jewish emigration out of Europe?  I would posit that the two are intimately connected due to the fact that the demographic moving into Europe has rates of anti-Semitism around the 80th percentile and is often not the least bit shy about demonstrating that tendency, sometimes violently and sometimes murderously.

French Jews understand very well that the slaughter of Jewish people in the kosher market in Paris, concurrent with the Charlie Hebdo murders, and the 2012 slaughter at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, means that the Jihad has arrived in Europe.

Many Europeans - those who were cognizant during the March 2004 Madrid train bombings that took 191 lives or the July 2005 suicide bombings in the London underground that took the lives of 52 commuters or the May 2013 murder and near-beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich - have noticed, as well.

For many other Europeans, however, the acceptance of large numbers of Arab immigrants is a moral imperative.  If Europeans wish to live up to Enlightenment values, and general standards of human decency, then they must extend a sincere welcome to the humanity crossing over their borders as refugees of war.  This is, apparently, despite the fact that about two out of three Middle Eastern migrants are not refugees from war.

The instinct driving this inclination is one of compassion and should, thus, be respected.

In a recent piece for Vocal Europe, social and cultural psychologist, Birol Akkus, argues that the emerging backlash within Europe against the immigration crisis is in part due to psychological issues among right-wing xenophobes (or racists).  He writes:

You might be forgiven for looking to specific and topical events, such as the refugee crisis, for the steady rise of xenophobia, but there are more reasons. The first and foremost reason is that our perception is not optimized to see the world as it is, but to see it as best serves our own interests.

Akkus argues for xenophobia as a driving force behind the backlash against Arab migrants into Europe.  He asks rhetorically, "Wasn’t xenophobia (or even racism) supposed to be a passed station in the postmodern enlightened world?"

It was, indeed.

The problem is that it is hard to be welcoming to a population wherein significant numbers hold a Koranically-based hostile view of the native population and non-Muslims, in general..  Furthermore, when Swedish citizens of Malmö complain that they have not the living space to accommodate this sudden upsurge in population, with the ice of winter fast approaching, it probably has little to do with xenophobia or Islamophobia.  It is, in fact, primarily due to those "specific and topical events" that Akkus glosses over.

Jewish people, needless to say, are leaving Europe because they are sick of the abuse.  They do not want to need to have their synagogues and Jewish schools guarded by police and they do not want their children harassed, beaten, or murdered on the streets of European cities for the crime of being Jewish.  They also understand very well what it means that they must have armed guards around their social facilities.  It means that they are surrounded by a significant degree of hostility and the worst of that hostility comes from the Arab-Muslim community.

There are two important questions to ask in terms of Jewish emigration from Europe.  How extensive will it be in the coming years?  And what will the semi-departure of the Jewish people mean to Europe?

Chances are that most European Jews are going to stay put.  There is, and will be, a departure of European Jewry, but unless the situation deteriorates further - which is a distinct possibility - it will not represent a majority.  The emigration will, however, be significant and the remaining Jewish population is likely to be negligible in European politics.

As for what the trimming of Jewish people out of Europe means to Europe, it probably will not mean much.  Although it is true that Jewish people tend to punch well above their weight-class culturally and politically, it is also true that Jews represent a tiny portion of the overall European population.

In January of this year, directly after the Parisian Charlie Hebdo / Kosher Market Jihadi Murders, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls claimed that "If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France."

That is a very nice sentiment, but given the fact that France and the EU fund Hamas, and Hamas calls directly for the genocide of the Jews, it rings a bit hollow.

Drawing upon one of the more famous hadiths, the Hamas charter reads in part:

The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!

The dwindling of European Jewry will not mean much to Europe.  There will be a small diminishment of European art, culture, literature, science, medicine, philosophy, and human empathy.

However, there will also be a significant and concurrent decrease in anti-Semitic violence, because there will be a significant and concurrent decrease in Jews.

Akkus is not wrong to point to rising xenophobia within Europe as an issue, but no analysis makes sense without a consideration of the "specific and topical events."