CJ Burch points me to this interesting piece by Joe Gandelman at the Moderate Voice detailing how French Jews are fleeing France and flocking to Florida.

Gandelman points to a 2003 Anti Defamation League assessment that concludes:

We do not think we are living in France in a particularly anti-Semitic environment. It is obvious to us that there is a revival of anti-Semitism in several other countries. There are beyond the shadow of a doubt sociological and historic distinctive features in France putting us Jews in a rather sensitive position, but I hope we will have the means to overcome this situation…Allow me to insist upon the fact that the Jews in France are facing a crisis that is part of a much broader national issue involving sociology, demography, economy and politics. It would be unrealistic to try and assess our own problems without replacing them within a larger reality of which we are part and parcel.

That larger reality being that the French have a serious Muslim problem, and that, well, Muslims don’t much care for Jews, and the French don’t care for much Muslims or Jews, French-born or not.

Having said that, though, let’s apply Occam’s razor and conclude that French Jews aren’t uprooting because they fear what is looming just over the horizon in France and greater Europe.  After all, Islam is a religion of peace, and Jews have nothing to fear from the growing influence and power of Muslim enclaves set up inside European cities and presuming to form mini-sovereignties that challenge the established pluralism (such as it is) of their host countries.

No, it’s far more likely that you simply can’t get a decent pastrami sandwich in Lyon—and that, for all its “culture,” France still won’t carry the Home Shopping Network.

So, you know—what’s a Jew to do?