Number of French Jewish immigrants to Israel down by 15.1%

Israel’s Ministry of Immigration has announced that the number of French Jewish immigrants to Israel fell by 15.1 per cent in the first four months of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014.

On Tuesday, the French newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur quoted a report by the Ministry of Immigration stating that during the first four months of 2015, 1,398 French Jews moved to Israel, compared to 1,647 in the same period of 2014.

Commenting on the report, Ariel Kandel, head of the French office of the Jewish Agency for Israel, said: “This decline will be made up for in the summer period as it is expected that the percentage of French Jews immigrating to Israel will rise from 10 per cent to 20 per cent over 2015.”

The Jewish Agency for Israel is an NGO that deals with the affairs of Jewish immigrants to Israel.

Kandel added that he expects Israel would receive between 8,000 to 8,500 French Jews in 2015.

He explained that 2014 witnessed the largest migration of French Jews to Israel since 1948, with about 6,000 arriving in Israel.

He said that the feeling of insecurity among France’s Jews after the attacks on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the assault on the Jewish shop in Paris last January motivated people to move.

There are an estimated 500,000-600,000 Jews living in France. It is considered the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third in the world after Israel and the United States.