French chief rabbi urges against call for aliyah

France’s Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia tells Israel’s Army Radio he implores Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to to issue a call for French Jewry to make aliyah to Israel during the speech he is set to give soon at Paris’s Great Synagogue. Were he to do so, “this would be a big problem” for the French Jewish community, says Korsia.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, however, has made an appearance at an aliyah fair in Paris and tells attendees that if they want to live in peace and security they need to move to Israel.

“The most important message for French Jews is: immigrate to Israel. If you are looking for security and a safer future for your children there is no other alternative,” he says at the event, which was attended by some 500 Parisian Jews.

Even European leaders understand today that radical Islam is a threat emerging from people unwilling to accept the values of the free world, Liberman adds. “That’s why in the Middle East they act against Israel – because they recognize us as representatives of the free world in the region.”

Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky is also attending the events, and vows to help provide for the physical security of Jewish communities across France, “increasing our assistance to any individual who wishes to immigrate to Israel, and working to ease immigrants’ integration into the Israeli workforce and Israeli society.”

— Raphael Ahren contributed