“Europeans, and Jews in particular, should be very sensitive both to anti-Semitism and to the helplessness that comes when only criminals and extremists have weapons.”
There is a growing sense of unease these days among Jews in Europe. In the wake of rising anti-Semitism on the Continent, including shootings by apparent Islamic extremists at a kosher market in Paris last month that killed four and at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels in May that also left four dead, an influential rabbi has proposed relaxing gun-control laws in Europe to allow more Jews to defend themselves.
“We hereby ask that gun licensing laws are reviewed with immediate effect to allow designated people in the Jewish communities and institutions to own weapons for the essential protection of their communities, as well as receiving the necessary training to protect their members from potential terror attacks,” wrote Rabbi Menachem Margolin, general director of the European Jewish Association, in an open letter to the European Union.
The sense of danger has gotten so great that it has prompted some Jews to leave Europe altogether. A recent story in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph spotlighted the plight of Simon and Honey Gould and their two teenage children, who are moving from Manchester, England, to Scottsdale, Ariz., in search of a more peaceful life.
By Adam B. Summers
