"You are in a country which has been familiar with Jewish life for at least 2000 years, from Roman times."
"Last year, in the city of Troyes, we celebrated the 900th anniversary of the death of Rashi, the famous Talmudist who was also a wine producer, which is a typically French activity.
"The Jews received the full French citizenship at the time of the revolution in 1791. "
"Today, French Jews are perfectly integrated into French society. And over the last seventy years, we have supplied France with 5 heads of government, plus a cardinal."
"But we have also had bad times: expulsion in 1309, the Dreyfus affair a century ago, for which the 100th anniversary of his rehabilitation was officially celebrated by President Chirac, the Vichy period, and more recently a wave of anti-Semitic acts which started in September 2000, exactly at the beginning of the second Intifada."
"Today all public authorities are working hard to combat anti-Semitism in close cooperation with CRIF and SPCJ, our communal security service. 2006 started with the assassination of Ilan Halimi. Then the war against Hizbullah and the biased presentation of that war in the media made us fear a new wave of anti-Semitic acts. "
"Anti-Semitism increased slightly but remained substantially below the peak level of 2004. "
"The terrible recent images of children killed in Gaza may again raise hatred against the Jews, especially in the suburbs where many Muslims live. Let me remind you that Muslims make up 10 % of the French population. We, the Jews, are only 1 %."
"The French Jewish community has extremely warm feelings towards Israel and Jewishness. We show it by massively joining in all demonstrations, actions, and solidarity missions. We show it by massively travelling to Israel, even during times of war. The figures are impressive: nearly half of all French Jews go to Israel yearly."
"Our main concern today is Iran."
"We are terrified by the Iranian nuclear threat. We are pressing the French government to take sanctions jointly with all Western countries."
"Up to now, we have only had speeches, no action.
We suggested to Germany and FIFA that they should refuse to let Iran participate in the football World Cup, without success.
We see no diplomatic sanctions, no serious economic sanctions. "
"On the contrary Total, BNP, Société Générale, Alcatel, Renault, Peugeot are actively developing their business in Iran, like most European big companies".
"We even saw the leader of the greatest nation in the world, President Bush, announcing, in the case of North Korea, that military action is excluded. This kills any deterrent value to the threat of sanctions.
"Time is pressing. After 2009, it will be too late".
There is absolutely no difference between Ahmadinejad and Hitler."
"As many of us have just come back from Munich, we must bear in mind what happened in Europe after the Kristallnacht."
"We must fight to prevent the spirit of cowardice of Daladier and Chamberlain."
"I urge this eminent gathering to address a solemn appeal to world political leaders, to world economic leaders, to intellectuals, opinion makers and personalities, if it means anything to them, to adopt a Churchillian response to Ahmadinejad. "
" The future of Israel, the future of my children, the future of your children, and the future of the free world at large will be determined by our capacity to prevent the terrible threat of an Iranian atomic bomb."
"This threat does not concern the Jews alone. It concerns all moderate Arab countries which do not respect the Islamic fundamentalist model of the shariah."
"And it also directly concerns Europe, which can be reached by the Iranian long-range missiles."
"We have a historic responsibility".
" Let us be inspired by our 6 million martyrs," concluded Roger Cukierman
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