French Jewish organizations established a hotline for community members affected by the Israel-Hamas conflict

A hotline has been established by French Jewish organizations to provide assistance to members of the community affected by the most recent Israel-Hamas war. This assistance is intended for families who have lost loved ones in the Middle East, parents worried about their children’s response to the fighting, and Holocaust survivors.

Numerous individuals have contacted in daily since its inception, which coincided with the fatal Hamas raid in southern Israel on October 7, according to the organizers.

At the United Jewish Social Fund, or FSJU, which unites numerous associations in France, Fabien Azoulay, the deputy director general in charge of solidarity, reported that more than sixty psychologists, psychiatrists, and child psychiatrists are offering to return calls from people who leave messages on the helpline.

Azoulay emphasized that individuals of all ages—from teens to parents and the elderly—are looking for help.

According to Azoulay, “it brings back childhood traumas they thought they’d never see again” for some Holocaust survivors. “They observe it in Israel, the nation that was meant to be the Jewish people’s haven. It is thus quite distressing.

Occasionally, the volunteers suggest a more extended session with a psychotherapist or connect callers with organizations that might provide them with social services when necessary.

The fund’s radio program, Radio of the Jewish Community, also mentioned the need for universal mental health services. When the radio station hosted its inaugural program regarding mental health problems, with an emphasis on children’s exposure to distressing news, listeners sent in approximately 300 queries.

Clinical psychologist Marie-Claude Egry has volunteered for the hotline and has discussed the topic on radio programs.

In light of the rising incidence of antisemitic incidents in France, she said that parents’ first worry is for their kids’ real safety.

The Interior Ministry recorded 389 arrests and 719 antisemitic offenses between October 7 and October 27, but it gave no more information about the individuals or the kind of acts that were committed. Threats against Jews are included in the data, according to the authorities.

A Jewish couple in their 80s lived in Paris, and last week, their front door was set on fire. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, called it a “semitic act.”

Following the commencement of the war and the consequent surge in antisemitic incidents, France has increased security at hundreds of Jewish schools, synagogues, and other locations around the nation and deployed 7,000 more soldiers.

According to Egry, a nine-year-old girl asked him if he knew why there were police officers outside the school since she and her son hadn’t yet spoken about the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“Of course, I know that when there’s a war in Israel, everyone in France is going crazy,” he said, shocking the mother.

According to the psychologist, parents are also concerned about potentially offensive comments and arguments on the conflict their kids could experience.

“From a distance, through news from family and friends, young people are involved here as much as they are there,” Egry said. “We are both very close and very far away.”

There have been protests in favor of Israel as well as meetings in France, home to the biggest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe.

The majority of the queries posed, according to clinical psychologist David Krausz, who also volunteers for the hotline, cannot be answered with firm guidance.

Quite the reverse, he claimed; mental health problems brought on by the Middle East crisis frequently mask a “deeper, more pervasive illness that may not have been evident at first but that, given the dramatic circumstances we find ourselves in, sets off a process that calls for and even demands specialized long-term care.”

He gave two examples: an eighteen-year-old student who was in Israel when the war broke out and had to return home immediately, frightened by what she had seen; and a nine-year-old daughter who felt so nervous that she no longer wanted to attend school.

The war’s tragedy has had a profound impact on the Palestinian diaspora worldwide, particularly in France, where there are said to be a few thousand members of the community. As they try to hear from loved ones in Gaza, many experience a feeling of despair and helplessness.

Palestinians dread a replay of the most horrific episode in their twisted history: the mass departure they made from what is now Israel in the 1948 conflict that preceded Israel’s establishment.

The bulk of the prewar population, around 700,000 Palestinians, left or were expelled from what is now Israel in the months leading up to and during the war, which saw Jewish forces repel an onslaught by multiple Arab governments. The Palestinians refer to this period of time as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”