CRIF : "French government doing its utmost to protect Jews"

"In France’s war against terror, the Jewish community works closely with authorities to secure its institutions", says Roger Cukierman.

By Amanda Borschel-Dan published in the Times of Israel, November 17, 2015

With some 10,000 police and soldiers guarding France’s Jewish community since the murderous January 2015 terrorist attack on Paris’s kosher Hyper Cacher market, the head of a French Jewish organization says the government is protecting French Jewry as fully as possible.

Speaking with The Times of Israel on Tuesday, in the aftermath of the deadly attacks in central Paris, the head of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF) Roger Cukierman said the Jewish community “cannot ask for more than what the government is already doing.”

Cukierman, who along with other French Jewish leaders is accompanied by bodyguards and rides in an armored vehicle, said the Jewish community has been on high alert since January.

According to Cukierman, “everybody knows that France has for years been the target of terrorist attacks.”

He said that the French media had for months reported a wide swath of statements by Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Prime Minister Manuel Valls alluding to the real possibility of an organized multi-pronged attack.

Founded in 1944, CRIF is an umbrella organization of French Jewish groups, and a member of the World Jewish Congress.

It has a close historical connection to the French authorities, particularly in combating anti-Semitism in France.

Cukierman clarified that the community had not received any specific warning ahead of Friday’s attacks, stressing that Jewish leaders do not receive regular security briefings from the government... Read more.