Last week, a French rabbi was assaulted twice within a few days, and demonstrators rallying for the Israeli hostages were violently attacked in Boulder, Colorado.

These attacks are the latest illustration of striking similarities in the antisemitism faced by the two largest diasporas, with the American Jews experiencing today what French Jews have endured over the past 25 years.

In the early 2000s, a major wave of antisemitism broke out in France in the wake of the Second Intifada that began in October 2000 in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories.

At the time, antisemitic incidents rose from less than 100 per year to 700 in the year 2000 (then fluctuated between 300 and 1,000, based on the situation in Israel or terrorist activity, such as an average of 600 in 2015).

What was considered marginal became almost normalized, representing a major shift in the way French Jews viewed their identity and sense of personal security.

People attend a demonstration against antisemitism at the Place de la Bastille, in Paris, France, June 20, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Johanna Geron)
People attend a demonstration against antisemitism at the Place de la Bastille, in Paris, France, June 20, 2024. (credit: REUTERS/Johanna Geron)
It also changed their geography and lifestyle, as a large proportion of French Jews moved from the suburbs to safer neighborhoods (a move dubbed as “domestic aliyah”), and kids left the public school system. Many Jews left France altogether, emigrating to Israel or the US, which was then considered a safe place for them.

What began with insults, intimidation, and physical attacks led to Jewish fatalities, first in 2006 with Ilan Halimi, who was tortured to death for being Jewish and supposedly rich – in a classic antisemitic trope – to the 2012 murder of four victims in a Jewish school in Toulouse, four customers at a kosher supermarket in 2015, and an old lady in 2018.

All attacks were fueled by Islamist-jihadist ideologies.

Not surprisingly, the October 7 attacks led to yet another increase in antisemitic incidents. In Israel, the number rose from 400 in 2022 to 1,700.

Similar trends were seen globally, including in the US, where incidents increased from 4,000 in 2022 to 9,000 in 2023 (with the vast majority occurring between October and December) and further to 10,000 in 2024.

Even before October 7, antisemitism was already on the rise. In the US – first fueled by Trump’s rhetoric, then by conspiracy theories surrounding COVID – the number of antisemitic incidents rose from 1,000 per year in 2015 to 4,000 in 2022.

Surge in antisemitism in the US after Oct. 7

However, for American Jews, October 7 may represent the tectonic shift that the Second Intifada signified for French Jewry.

In 2015, there were 10 times more antisemitic incidents targeting Jews in France than in the US. By 2021, this number had dropped to only four times as many, and by 2024, to “only” twice as many. Therefore, it is fair to say that the past decade has been harsh for US Jews, with October 7 being a major aggravating factor.

Incidents on college campuses, with appeals to “Globalize the Intifada,” diners harassed at a Jewish restaurant in Philadelphia, and Jewish or Israeli stores being defaced, have been commonplace since October 7, while the murder of the young staffers at the Israeli embassy in Washington on May 22 was unfortunately a predictable outcome.

It is unnerving to see police cars parked in front of synagogues or to go through security doors in order to attend a Shabbat service in New York. Meanwhile, French Jews are all too familiar with this situation; the easiest way to spot a Jewish institution in the streets of Paris is to see whether there is a police car anywhere close.

As seen above, antisemitism in France has fluctuated somewhat since 2000, but it has never returned to its pre-Intifada levels, even when the situation in the Middle East was relatively quiet; now it is doubtful whether a sense of security will ever fully return for American Jews.

Another similarity between the antisemitism faced by French and US Jews is – adding insult to injury – the weaponization of their suffering and pain agenda by the illiberal far-right in France, supported by the Israeli government, and a US president who could not care less about the Jews’ well-being, using it to implement his policies against universities or immigrants.

As they enter a period of uncertainty, Jews in the US and France remain the scapegoats and political pawns, as they have always been throughout history, further complicating the urgent fight against antisemitism.

There are some differences between the two communities, such as the much smaller proportion of people with a Muslim background in the USA than in France; this could limit the racial tensions fueled by the conflict in the Middle East.

However, it is inescapable to see that the normalization of antisemitism experienced by France in the early 2000s has now hit the United States, often with violent acts leading to fatalities.

On July 4, 1884, France gifted the United States the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of alliance between the countries; one century later, in 1986, the US gifted France a smaller version of this statue, which stands by the Seine in Paris.It is sad, worrisome, and even horrifying to see that both France and the US today “share” an antisemitism that their authorities are trying to contain, with limited success so far.

Born and raised in France, the writer is the correspondent of French Jewish radio, Radio J, in the US, where he has been living for 15 years. He also holds US citizenship. His opinions are his only.