Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 01, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A7 winnipegfreepress. com WORLD WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 A 7 B ERLIN - Eighty years ago, Jael Botsch- Fitterling's parents decided something was very wrong in Germany, the nation they called home. Adolf Hitler had just named himself f�hrer, and anti- Semitism was becoming national law. Her parents and other relatives packed up and fled. Because of that move, six years later she was born in Jerusalem, in what was then Palestine. When she was seven, the land beneath her feet became Israel, making her one of the original Jews in a new Jewish homeland. All because her parents had sensed Germany was becoming very dangerous for Jews. Then, in the 1950s, they trusted their instincts again and returned to Germany. Botsch- Fitterling has never left. But today, since the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris, she's been thinking about that first decision to leave - thinking about it quite a bit, in fact. The Charlie Hebdo attacks ended in a bloodbath inside a Jewish market in Paris with four Jewish men dead. And there'd been other attacks: In 2012, a " lone wolf" killed three students and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France; last May, an attacker with links to the Islamic State group killed four people at the entrance to the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Botsch- Fitterling finds the pattern deeply distressing. " I love my life in Berlin," she said. " I love my home, and my children and grandchildren are here. But we can't escape history. I just wonder, as I look around Europe today, about those who stayed until it was too late the last time." Others also wonder if there will again come a time when Jews won't be able to remain in Europe. It isn't an idle concern. Even before the Jan. 7- 9 attacks in Paris, there were signs of rising hostility. A 2013 European Union survey of " those who consider themselves to be Jews" in eight nations found two- thirds said anti- Semitism was " a very big" or " fairly big" problem. In France and Hungary, half those questioned said it was a very big problem. And a quarter of all respondents said they were discriminated against within the previous 12 months because of their religion. The report described a broad range of anti- Semitic acts such as graffiti and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and monuments. There are many examples. This week in Belgium there were reports of the miniature brick Holocaust memorials known as " stumble stones" being defaced. Over New Year's Eve in Berlin, a 26- yearold Israeli man was beaten and spat upon after filming a group of young men singing anti- Semitic songs on the subway. A July protest in Berlin of Israel's actions in Gaza led to anti- Semitic insults being shouted and the vandalism of Jewish- owned businesses and a synagogue. Morten Kjaerum, the director of the European Union's Agency for Fundamental Rights, which put together the survey, declared this week no incident should be too small to escape notice. " We must stamp out all forms of anti- Semitism, from the blatant acts of vandalism of Jewish sites to the quiet acceptance of stereotypes and subtle forms of hate speech online and off," Kjaerum said. More Jews appear to be fleeing France. Studies indicate out of a total population of about 400,000, more than 10,000 Jews left France in 2014; 7,000 of those moved to Israel. Avi Mayer, a spokesman for the Jewish Agency for Israel, said the numbers are expected to rise this year, with projections of between 10,000 and 15,000 Jews leaving France for Israel. The number of calls to the agency from French Jews worried about their future has tripled in recent weeks, he said. " The French government has gone to great lengths to assure Jews that they are protected," he said. " This is both a positive and a negative. If you send your child to a school with armed guards surrounding it, it's both a sign that the threat is taken seriously and a reminder that the threat is very serious." Even before the Paris attacks, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls expressed concerns about the Jewish exodus. " If 100,000 Jews leave, France will no longer be France. The French Republic will be judged a failure," he told Atlantic magazine. It's not just radical Islamists fuelling the worry. Also growing is right- wing extremism that many fear attracts anti- Semites: the National Front in France, the United Kingdom Independence Party and Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West in Germany. In the United Kingdom, the assistant commissioner for counterterrorism announced security would be strengthened at Jewish institutions. " The global picture of terrorist activity does give us heightened concern about the risk to the Jewish community in the U. K.," a statement said. Of all places, Berlin may be a bright spot for European Jews. Hitler's " final solution," in which six million Jews were killed, wiped out Berlin's thriving Jewish community in the 1930s and 1940s. Today, however, 17,000 Israeli citizens, by official count, live in the city. Unofficially, Jewish leaders say the number is closer to 30,000 - and growing. Official German statistics for the most recent year available, 2013, show 2,700 Israeli arrivals, a record. Those numbers could rise. Deidre Berger, director of the Berlin office the American Jewish Committee, said despite history, there is a reason for the trend. Germany has done a better job than other European nations of protecting Jewish life. It starts, she said, with a German intelligence community that very actively tracks anti- Semitic threats. But that doesn't mean Berger is sanguine when she considers the 5,000 mostly young Europeans who have gone to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations or the hundreds who have returned. " The threat to European Jews appears to be spreading," she said. " This requires a more active government response, across the continent." Her counterpart in the American Jewish Committee's Paris office, Simone Rodan- Benzaquen, said she hopes the Charlie Hebdo attacks were a wake- up call for European governments. She said while too many young Muslims in and around Paris, Marseille and other French cities drifted toward the radical, violent fringe, the French did not properly counter the message. That, she said, " says something very profound about French society, and it's going from bad to worse." The situation, she says, has come to this: " Every Jew in France, in Europe really, has asked themselves whether they have a future here. Most still answer yes, and so they remain. But the pressure is building." In Berlin, Botsch- Fitterling admits it's all been unnerving. Only once before in the 45 years she's lived in her apartment in southwest Berlin has she pondered moving back to Israel. That was in the 1980s, when she sensed an increase in anti- Semitism. She believes she was " one insult away" from leaving. " I am thinking about it again," she said, surrounded by the books she loves, above the crowded street she loves, in the apartment she loves. " But is it even possible for a Jew to live in Berlin, or in Europe today, without thinking about leaving?" - McClatchy By Matthew Schofield ' I just wonder, as I look around Europe today, about those who stayed until it was too late the last time' European EXODUS Increasing friction on continent has more Jews heading to Israel THOMAS HAENTZSCHEL / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES A window was broken at a Jewish community centre in Rostock, Germany in 2009. More recently, a 2013 survey of Jews in eight European Union countries found two- thirds thought anti- Semitism was a ' big problem.' CHRISTOPHE ENA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Soldiers patrol the street in Paris. France has deployed 10,000 troops to protect sensitive sites, including Jewish schools. A_ 07_ Feb- 01- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A7 1/ 31/ 15 11: 19: 04 PM ;