The President of CRIF, the representative body of Jewish institutions in France, Roger Cukierman, expressed his worries about about the "bad general climate " prevailing in France which he said " hurts the feelings of Jews,''in stateents made on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his umbrella organization.
'The situation has significantly worsened since the early 2000s,'' he said in interviews where he lamented a “climate of anti-Semitism” in France and singled out both extreme-right and extreme-left parties for contributing in different ways to increase resentment against Jews.
He slammed the anti-Zionist attitude of the Leftist Front, an alliance of Socialist and Communist parties, which calls for boycotting Israel and ''makes Zionism the new coat of anti-Semitism, '' and the fact that extreme-right leader Marine Le Pen had never distanced herself from controversial statements made by her father, the former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, who once called the Nazi gas chambers “a detail of the history of World War II.”
“Despite the perfectly refined language of Marine Le Pen, behind the National Front stand all the anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers,” Cukierman said in an interview with ‘RTL Radio’.
The leader of CRIF also attacked comedian Dieudonné, an outspoken supporter for the National Front, as an “anti-Semitism professional” who was using his reputation to “fabricate and disseminate anti-Semitism. ‘’That is very worrying,” he said, noting that Dieudonné’s videos are seen ‘’a million times.’’
‘’’Aliyah’’, the immigration of Jews from France to Israel, increased by 54% in one year, according to figures from the Israeli Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.
Cukierman, who succeeded last May to Richard Prasquier at the head of CRIF, is also concerned by the '' silent '' penetration '' of Qatar ‘’which invaded France and is likely to transmit the ideas of the Muslim Brotherhood, and by parliamentary votes urging the prohibition of circumcision or questioning the ritual slaughter.
The CRIF is celebrating the 70 years of its existence. It was founded in 1944 and his first objective was the rescue of Jewish refugees in France. A delegation of the organization was received on Monday in Paris by French President François Hollande at the Elysee Palace.
The president said he understood the special bond of French Jews with Israel, which was “natural”. He also said that “France needs its Jews.”
CRIF today represents the major Jewish organizations in the country where between 500,000 and 600,000 Jews live.