By: Fern Sidman

The delicate fabric of Franco-American relations was tested this week as Washington openly confronted Paris over what it views as an inadequate response to spiraling antisemitism in France. The controversy erupted after US Ambassador Charles Kushner sent a sharply worded letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, expressing his “deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France” and faulting the French state for its “lack of sufficient action” in addressing it. The French Foreign Ministry, in a rebuke that has since deepened the rift, summoned Kushner on Monday and dismissed his criticism as “unacceptable.”

The confrontation coincides with the release of fresh statistics from the French Interior Ministry revealing that antisemitic hate crimes remain far higher than before the Hamas-led massacre of Oct. 7, 2023—a mass atrocity that triggered not only renewed conflict in the Middle East but also unleashed a global surge in anti-Jewish sentiment. As The Algemeiner reported on Monday, Jewish leaders in France remain deeply alarmed, charging that symbolic gestures have not translated into genuine protection for Europe’s largest Jewish community.

Ambassador Kushner’s letter, delivered in unusually blunt diplomatic language, warned that antisemitism in France has reached a level that threatens the safety and cohesion of the nation itself. According to the information provided in The Algemeiner report, Kushner cited the steady rise of targeted attacks against Jews, including violent assaults, desecration of synagogues, and harassment of schoolchildren, as evidence that French authorities were not confronting the threat with sufficient urgency.

“The dramatic rise of antisemitism in France cannot be dismissed with statements of regret. It requires sustained, forceful action,” Kushner wrote. He also linked Macron’s foreign policy—most notably, his announcement that France would recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September—to what he called “the emboldening of extremist rhetoric” against Jews in France.

The French government reacted swiftly, summoning Kushner and issuing a strongly worded statement that accused Washington of breaching diplomatic protocol. “The rise in antisemitic acts in France since Oct. 7, 2023, is a reality that we deplore and to which the French authorities are responding with total commitment,” the Foreign Ministry declared.

Officials further argued that Kushner’s intervention risked violating the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. The Algemeiner report noted that French diplomats were particularly incensed by suggestions that their counter-antisemitism policies were failing, with one senior official insisting that the state’s commitment to combating discrimination is “unequivocal.”

Aurore Bergé, France’s Minister for Combating Discrimination, reinforced that position in a televised interview. “This matter is far too serious,” she said. “Our efforts are unequivocal, but it is too important to be handled through the courts in a diplomatic context.”

The dispute unfolds against a troubling statistical backdrop. According to figures released by the French Interior Ministry, 646 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the first half of this year alone. While that number is down from the unprecedented surge registered in the same period last year, it still represents a 112.5 percent increase compared to the first half of 2023, when 304 incidents were documented.

As The Algemeiner report emphasized, these numbers confirm that France’s Jewish community remains under sustained pressure nearly two years after Oct. 7, with antisemitism entrenched at levels dramatically above the historical norm. Acts of harassment, vandalism, and violence continue to plague Jewish neighborhoods and institutions, while anti-Israel demonstrations across French cities often blur into openly antisemitic rhetoric.

One particularly shocking incident occurred earlier this month, when an olive tree planted in memory of Ilan Halimi—the young French Jew tortured and murdered in 2006 by a Muslim gang—was vandalized and cut down. The desecration of the memorial struck a deep chord within the Jewish community, symbolizing not only persistent hatred but also the sense that even remembrance itself is under assault.

“In France, we are no longer safe, neither alive nor dead,” Halimi’s sister, Anne-Laure Abitbol, told RTL. She went on to accuse President Macron of aggravating the climate of hostility by recognizing Palestinian statehood at the UN, saying, “By recognizing a Palestinian state, Macron is encouraging antisemitism and failing to take action against antisemitic attacks in the country.”

Her remarks, cited by The Algemeiner, highlight the perception among French Jews that foreign policy decisions have immediate domestic repercussions—and that the government is prioritizing international diplomacy over the safety of its Jewish citizens.

Last month, President Macron declared that France would recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly, a move he framed as part of Paris’s commitment to a “just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” The decision placed France in line with several other European nations but triggered a furious response from Israel, which described the recognition as a “reward for terrorism.”

According to the information contained in The Algemeiner report, Israeli officials have repeatedly warned that such diplomatic gestures legitimize Hamas by granting Palestinians a political victory in the wake of mass terror. Within France, Jewish leaders argue that the recognition emboldens antisemites who already view Jews as proxies for Israel. By intertwining the issue of Palestinian statehood with domestic antisemitic violence, Macron has inadvertently fueled tensions on both fronts.

For France’s Jewish population—estimated at roughly 500,000, the largest in Europe—the persistence of antisemitic violence has become an existential concern. Community leaders have issued repeated calls for greater security at synagogues and schools, harsher sentencing for hate crimes, and stronger political condemnation of anti-Jewish rhetoric that masquerades as anti-Israel activism.

As the report in The Algemeiner noted, many French Jews now believe that emigration may be the only viable long-term solution. In recent years, thousands have left for Israel, the United States, and Canada, citing the erosion of safety and the steady normalization of antisemitism.

The confrontation between Washington and Paris over antisemitism illustrates both the persistence of a grave social ill and the limits of diplomacy in addressing it. Ambassador Kushner’s unusually direct criticism underscores the seriousness with which the United States views the threat, while France’s defensive response reveals the sensitivity of a government already under pressure domestically.

For French Jews, however, the diplomatic sparring matters less than the reality of their daily lives: ongoing harassment, desecration of memorials, and a government whose foreign policy decisions, in their view, exacerbate the very hatred it claims to oppose.

The persistence of antisemitism in France nearly two years after Oct. 7 reflects not merely a transient surge but a structural crisis that demands more than statements of solidarity. Unless Paris can translate its “unequivocal” commitments into tangible action, the Jewish community will continue to feel besieged—its faith in the Republic eroded, and its future within France increasingly uncertain.