Excerpt:
What's the single most important issue affecting the Jews of France, Europe's biggest Jewish community and the third largest in the world? Ask two Jews and you'll get three opinions, right? Well, not quite.
Joel Mergui, president of the Consistoire Central, the body charged by the government with organizing the community's religious affairs, and Richard Prasquier, the president of CRIF, the umbrella organization for Jewish advocacy groups, agree on the big issues but disagree over their order of importance – just as you'd expect from a leader who heads a religious organization and one helming a nonreligious political organization.
In separate interviews with The Jerusalem Post on Monday at their offices on opposite sides of the French capital, the leaders of the French Jewish establishment outlined the challenges, fears and hopes of the community as they see them.