Jews wearing yarmulkes. A new survey indicates that most French people think Jews should continue to wear their skullcaps in spite of a rise in antisemitism. Photo: Wikipedia.

While a majority of French respondents to a new survey believe Jews should not stop wearing their skullcaps in the wake of a series of recent attacks, an even greater number considers antisemitism on the rise in their country, the French-Jewish news service JSS reported on Sunday.

According to the Odoxa survey, conducted for French digital channel iTélé and the weekly magazine Paris Match, 70 percent of the French population do not think Jews should refrain from wearing yarmulkes, though 71% say antisemitism is increasing in France.

The poll comes on the heels of the January 11 machete attack against a Torah teacher outside of a Jewish institute in Marseille, which led to the head of the city’s Jewish community to call on Jews to “remove their yarmulkes during this difficult period, until better days.”

Rabbi Zvi Amar’s position aroused controversy among the Jews of France and spurred French Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia to take the opposite position, asserting that “removing yarmulkes would be giving in to the terrorists.”

Most respondents to the survey, from across the political spectrum – the Left, the Right and the far-Right National Front – agree with Korsia.

JSS noted a three-percentage-point increase, from 68% a little less than a year ago to 71% today, in the number of people in France who consider antisemitism to be rising.