Barcelona
The rabbi was correct in saying that Europe is lost, but not only for Jews.
By Giulio Meotti – Arutz Sheva
Barcelona’s chief rabbi has urged Jews to move to Israel because “Europe is lost” to radical Islam. Rabbi Meir Bar-Hen has been encouraging his congregation to flee Spain, which he called a “hub of Islamist terror for all of Europe”.
This terrible warning came after a terror attack in Barcelona left 15 people dead.
“I tell my congregants: Don’t think we’re here for good”, the rabbi said. “And I encourage them to buy property in Israel. This place is lost. Don’t repeat the mistake of Algerian Jews, of Venezuelan Jews. Better [get out] early than late”.
“Europe is lost,” he added. And he is right.
The kippah is disappearing in much of Europe. Jewish communities spend half their budget in safety. A tenth of French Jews has already fled to Israel. In Malmo the last ones are hidden. The European Jewish Diaspora seems condemned, especially in France, Sweden, Belgium, Holland, throughout central-northern Europe.
There are whole European areas where it is better not to be recognized as Jews. It is happening today.
Then came a new poll from the UK: One-third of Jews are thinking about emigration, and nearly 40 per cent hide Jewish symbols today for fear of anti-Semitism. Thes are percentages I was used to studying whenit came to the French Jewish statistics, where up to 80 percent took the idea of escape into account I would not have imagined that the situation was the same in England.
Another major attack on European Jewish communities, such as those in Toulouse, Brussels and the Hyper Cacher, and could start a new exile.
Jews are like canaries in the mine: when these fall to the ground, it is best for everyone to return to the surface.
It would certainly be good for Israel if large masses of European Jews emigrated there, as happened with Soviet Jews, the Ethiopian Jews and the Mizrahim from Arab countries.
But what would happen to Europe, its freedom, its tolerance, its intelligence, its cultural richness, if the Jews leave it again?
We are on the edge of the precipice.
Giulio Meotti
The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book “A New Shoah”, that researched the personal stories of Israel’s terror victims, published by Encounter and of “J’Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel” published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.