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Around a hundred students from Midreshet Shalhevet High School stood in front of the French Consulate on Wednesday to protest rising anti-Semitism in France.
“My sister decided to leave Paris and settle in Israel because she can’t support the anti-Semitic climate in France anymore,” said a student from the suburban school. “My brother doesn’t dare wear his kippa when he walks the streets for fear of being insulted.”
The girls proudly wore Phrygian caps, waved signs, and chanted slogans—”J’accuse” and “Act Now.” Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, dean of Midreshet Shalhevet, who shared the students’ concern about the situation in France, was there to supervise them. “We’re worried about what’s happening in France because the French government doesn’t seem to caree. One wonders, for example, how it’s possible that a swastika was painted on the statue of Marianne in a pro-Palestinian demonstration with impunity.”
The goal of the gathering was to offer a box of 100 skullcaps to the consul as a symbolic gesture, asking him to forward them to the French authorities to distribute to the Jewish community in France. The consul accepted the box. “I do not know how this will change things, but at least we have tried to get the message across,” said the rabbi.
