Joël Mergui. Photo: Wikipedia.

Joël Mergui

Communal leader

As a result of recent tragic events in France, Joël Mergui, a leader of the French Jewish community, last month had to pose a difficult question to the State of Israel. During a January visit to the Jewish state, Mergui said that while his community has in the past financially supported Israel, now they are the ones in need of aid. Mergui, president of the Consistoire, an umbrella organization of Jewish congregations in France, was part of a meeting of 20 European Jewish leaders at the Knesset. Days earlier, four Jews were killed during a hostage crisis at Paris’ HyperCacher market, part of a recent uptick of violent antisemitism in France.