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By Andrea Peyser
October 17, 2014

Fiddling as hatred burns

Will the last Jew to leave France please blow out the Shabbat candles?

Oh, I know that failing to let the lights burn out on their own is a religious no-no. But this is serious.

An unprecedented number of the Chosen People are heading to the exits from the Gallic state, spooked by spikes in anti-Semitic attacks occurring all across Europe of a kind not seen since 1930s-era Germany.

In May, a man opened fire with a Kalashnikov rifle inside the Jewish Museum in Brussels, killing four people. In Liege, Belgium, a cafe owner erected a sign saying that dogs were welcome, Jews were not.

And in France, whose 500,000-strong Jewish population is the largest on the European continent, a mob descended on a Paris synagogue July 13 (right) to demonstrate against Israeli bombings in Gaza, which were carried out in self-defense against rockets fired by the terror group Hamas. To be sure, even some Jews oppose Israel’s occupation of territories claimed by Palestinians!

But the protest seemed a mere prelude to the main event — all-out Jewish bashing.

Two weeks later, some 400 protestors attacked a synagogue and Jewish-owned businesses in a northern Paris enclave, in Kristallnacht fashion, shouting, “Gas the Jews’’ and “Kill the Jews!’’

But politically correct observers and politicians are loath to admit to seeing the elephant in the room: Deep-seated feelings of anti-Semitism among the citizenry came out of the closet and spilled into the streets, egged on by radical Muslim immigrants.

France may claim a half-million Jews, but it is also home to about 5 million Muslims. And the number of Jews is dwindling by the day.

In the first eight months of this year, an alarming 4,566 Jews fled France for Israel, approaching the number who left the former communist countries of Eastern Europe for the Holy Land. It’s expected to exceed the level of Jews making Aliyah (emigration to Israel) from the United States by the end of this year. More than 1,000 French Jews hightailed it to Israel over a 10-day period in July alone, Breitbart.com said.

“France is today the leading country for emigration to Israel. It has never been before,’’ Ariel Kandel, director of the French office of the Jewish Agency for Israel, told the International Business Times UK.

Yet denial over the cause of European anti-Semitism only encourages it to fester.

A depressing argument erupted this month on the HBO TV talk show “Real Time with Bill Maher’’ between the host and the actor and director Ben Affleck. The subject put on the table by Maher, a leftist and an atheist, was Islam: Has the religion been warped by those who would brutalize or put to death women, homosexuals and nonbelievers?

“It’s gross,’’ Afleck cried. “It’s racist. It’s like saying ‘shifty Jew.’ ‘’ He defended Muslims, saying, “How about more than a billion people who are not fanatical, who don’t punish women, who just want to go to school, have some sandwiches?… It’s stereotyping.’’

Another guest, Sam Harris, an author, neuroscientist and atheist, called Islam a “mother lode of bad ideas.’’

Poor Ben. Affleck, who produced, directed and starred in 2012’s “Argo,’’ and won a Best Picture Oscar for the masterful flick set during the 1979-81 Iranian hostage crisis. But he was denied a nomination for a Best Director statue by leftists at the Academy of Arts and Sciences. Punished — for making a picture that paints CIA agents as heroes and Muslims as villains. The “Gone Girl’’ star, who will soon appear as Batman, surely won’t make that mistake again.

Earlier this month, “CBS Evening News” did something shocking. Network personnel told an uncomfortable truth. As Jews prepared to observe Yom Kippur, anchorman Scott Pelley told how armed guards were stationed outside synagogues in Germany amid furious acts of anti-Semitism across Europe that started with Israel’s battles in Gaza.

“Chants were heard that echoed from Germany’s darkest time,’’ said reporter Mark Phillips. “ ‘Jew, Jew, cowardly pig,’ they say.’

“Much of the more incendiary street rhetoric has come from German Muslims, many recent immigrants,’’ said Phillips.

Is any place safe? French Jews just want to survive.