Shortly after returning from France, MK Rabbi Israel Eichler (United Torah Judaism) said anxiety surrounds the French Jewish community: “There is a constant tension, the Jewish community is living in a prison-like situation.”
Speaking to Kikar HaShabbat following the shocking massacre in Toulouse, Eichler recalled the constant anxiety that enveloped the country’s Jewish communities.
“We traveled in France with a sense of tension,” he said, “I saw that the Jewish community is behaving as if they’re living in a prison. The Jewish community offices are built like a fortress. Police are guarding every synagogue during prayer times.
“Today when I heard about the event I was horrified. Only on Thursday I was at a Chabad school for girls in the 19th quarter of Paris—two thousand students—and talked about the tension surrounding the place, with all the Arabs living there. Today, we received the proof.”
MK Rabbi Eichler said France poses “a great danger to Jews. There is danger in Israel, too, from Iran and terrorist organizations. But in Israel we have the special protection of God. In France there’s severe sense danger. Jews there feel like strangers in their own home.”
