Birthright Israel, the charity founded in 1999 to bring young Jews on trips to Israel, has witnessed an unprecedented increase in participation among French citizens over the past two years.

The Observer has learned that 2500 French Jews will have visited Israel as part of the program this year—more than double the 1100 who went last year and a stunning 2400% increase over the 98 who visited as program participants in 2013.

The gains come amid a string of high-profile attacks by radical Islamists in France, many targeting Jewish institutions. In March 2012, three linked shootings in Toulouse and Montauban targeted French military personnel as well as four people at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish day school, where a self-identified mujaheed who claimed ties to al-Qaeda killed a rabbi who shielded his two sons from attack and then shot one of the boys as he crawled away, and then shot an 8-year-old girl at point blank range while he held her by her braids. Early this year, the office of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo was attacked as 11 people were killed by gunmen identifying themselves as Al-Qaeda while their accomplice, who identified with ISIS, took hostages in a kosher market and killed four of them before being killed himself.
 

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