Jews are leaving France in ever-growing numbers, reports Mireille Silcoff in The National Post. Violent anti-Semitic attacks have become so common that France's Jewish community has established its own security firm, Service de la protection de la communauté Juif. Security guards are on duty at synagogues and private Jewish schools, including the Lycée Diane Benvenuti in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

[School principal] Mr. Barthel walks me through the school, which was built three years ago to what he calls "new specifications for a new reality. All of our windows are made with glass both bomb- and bullet-proof; there are security cameras in all the common rooms," he says. "You will also notice there is no sign outside of the school that could single it out as a Jewish place."
. . .
Mr. Barthel explains the buddy system instituted at the Benvenuti school for children both arriving and leaving the premises. The students must travel in a pack and are not allowed to wear visible skullcaps or Stars of David anywhere but inside the school.

More and more French Jews are moving to Israel, the United States, and Quebec. Mr Barthel and his family are preparing to emigrate to Montreal next year.

Since 2001, French Jewish immigration to Montreal has increased by more than 700%, an influx of European-born Jews from a single country in numbers not seen since the middle of the past century.

Paris was burning for two weeks this month. But Jewish Paris has been burning for five years — a steady, fiery precursor that went largely ignored by the French authorities. The rise of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 sparked a wave of mainly Muslim-led, anti-Jewish violence in France that has since brought forth thousands of hateful acts aimed at French Jews and their places of business, study, recreation, prayer and burial.

French President Jacques Chirac, however, admonished a Jewish editor to "stop saying there is anti-Semitism in France. There is no anti-Semitism in France." No wonder the authorities turn a blind eye to attacks on Jews. Mr Barthel is resigned to leaving his homeland:

"Sometimes it's best," says Mr. Barthel, "to just look clearly and say, 'OK, it's been nice in the past, but now it's time to move on.' In the span of history," he adds, "this is a not an altogether unfamiliar situation for us."

True, but it's still sad, I think.

The National Post says this is the first of a three-part series.

via Fjordman.

UPDATE (21 Nov.): Part two of the series: Taking leave of 'the fear'.

UPDATE 2 (22 Nov.): Part three of the series blogged here.