Haim Korsia. Photo: Twitter.

Haim Korsia

Chief Rabbi of France

France’s Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia in 2015 rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s suggestion that European Jews should flee to Israel.

“France without Jews is not France,” Korsia famously said, adding that “our [job] is to give a real choice to French Jewish people,” he added. “And to have a real choice you have to be in security, in serenity, in France.”

In the wake of the January, 2015 Paris terror attacks, Korsia commended the French government’s deployment of 10,500 soldiers across France, in part to protect Jewish sites.

“It’s incredible, because it’s very, very intensive to take care of security of many citizens,” Korsia said. “Now I think it’s not a Jewish question, it’s a question for all France, and it’s very important.”