Rabbi Predicts Jewish Exodus From France

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By David Bowden, Senior News Correspondent

The rabbi of Paris's biggest synagogue has said thousands of Jews will flee France in the wake of last week's terror attacks.

Moshe Sebbag, from the vast and ornate Grand Synagogue in the French capital, says there is likely to be a mass flight to safety if the terror threat does not diminish.

He said: "Yes I think there will be a big exodus, it's a fact, you can't ignore it.

"Already this year its estimated 7,000 will leave for Israel, but after what's happened I know that everybody, or a lot of people are looking for a way out."

Sabine is one of them. She fears the Jews in France face a threat not seen since the days of the Nazis and the Second World War.

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Gallery: Inside Paris' Grand Synagogue

The Grand Synagogue was opened to the general public in 1875

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pays a visit to the synagogue. Pic: Alain Azria

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Known as La Victoire synagogue, it is the largest in France

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One of the benches inside the synagogue

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She has three sons, the youngest of which is seven years old.

She dreamt he was killed by a terrorist who snatched him at gunpoint and has told all of her boys not to have anything that marks them out as Jewish on show in public.

She said: "I went with my son to school (non denominational) and I said to him, if someone arrives to kill people don't say that you are Jewish, never."

Sabine is already researching the possibility of buying a home in Israel, in case she determines it's too dangerous to stay in France.

She has told her older sons not to consider any higher education courses in Europe, instead advising them to study in Canada, Australia or Israel.

Sabine is not a particularly observant Jew and does not live in a Jewish enclave in Paris, but she is very apprehensive about what the future holds.

She added: "As a Jew living in Paris I feel very, very frightened. I think they wanted that and they succeeded in that."

A week after four Jewish men were killed at a kosher supermarket, Jews were back in the shops stocking up on provisions for the Sabbath, once again, though this time with soldiers on the street.

How many more times will those same people buy their goods from a French delicatessen before they deem it too dangerous to live in France at all?

Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama have joined forces to fight "the poisonous narrative" of Islamist extremists.

Speaking on his way back from a meeting in Washington with Mr Obama about the terror threat following the Paris attacks, Mr Cameron said: "You can have, tragically, people who have had all the advantages of integration, who have had all the economic opportunities our countries can offer, who still get seduced by this poisonous, radical death cult of a narrative."

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