‘I Can Only Feel Uncomfortable as a Jew’: Young European Jews Speak Out on Antisemitism Fears
by Algemeiner Staff
Young European Jews have been speaking about their experiences of antisemitism after a CNN survey this week showed a rise in Jew-hatred, intolerance and ignorance of the Holocaust across the continent.
Interviewed by popular German youth website Dasding, 20-year-old Alon revealed that “sometimes you are treated weirdly as Jew.”
In a video on the site, Alon pointed out that Pforzheim, the German town where he lives, is a center of the AfD — Germany’s largest far-right political party.
“Pforzheim is an AfD stronghold,” Alon said. “I can only feel uncomfortable here as a Jew.”
But Alon added that he takes pride in his Jewishness, regularly attending synagogue and observing Jewish dietary laws.
In neighboring France, CNN spoke with fearful Jews living in the Paris suburbs. The global broadcaster noted that 55,000 French Jews have made aliyah to Israel since 2000, according to figures from the Jewish Agency.
Myriam — who was too frightened to give her last name — told CNN: “I’m scared of the future of my baby here.”
Said Myriam, “I hope that he will have a future here, and you know Jewish communities are a part of the history of France.”
France has the largest Jewish community in western Europe, numbering almost 500,000 people.