At a fund-raising dinner for a women’s philanthropy group last week, Vanity Fair journalist Marie Brenner warned that France is fast becoming the world’s most dangerous place for Jews. She cited statistics that show a 90% rise in physical attacks in recent years and 40% of polled Jews would like to leave the land that gave us champagne, stinky cheese and that cute Audrey Tautou. As a result of this “virulent new strain” of anti-Semitism, Brenner is calling for American Jews to help French Jewish youth obtain visas and to open their “doors and hearts” to these latest refugees of the Diaspora. “We helped the Soviet Jews,” says Brenner. “Now there’s a need again.”
Scary. Since the French government seems more preoccupied with important issues like copywriting and forbidding the publication of all nighttime images of the Eiffel Tower than enforcing laws to combat hate crimes, does this mean we should give the Statue of Liberty back?