Tens of thousands of foreign Jews have settled in France during the past quarter of a century. No one has as yet counted accurately the number of the Jewish immigrants. It is, however, very great, and has changed entirely the face of French Jewry. The life of French Jewry is becoming more and more influenced by the new elements, who have come especially from Eastern Europe.
Until recently, the vast majority of the East European Jewish immigrants in France was satisfied to retain its former citizenship. Even those who have been living here for the last 25-30 years were satisfied to remain for eigners. Only a small percentage of them became naturalized Frenchmen.
There were various reasons for this. On the one hand, the French laws with regard to the naturalization of foreigners were, until 1926, very severe and backward. Like almost all modern nations, France didn’t wish to open the doors of citizenship for alien elements, so that even the foreigner who desired greatly to become a French citizen, had many difficulties in attaining this.
On the other hand, the Jews, until recently, would show very little desire to become French citizens. They still felt themselves too much bound up with the countries from which they emigrated; they would often regard their stay in France as merely temporary; the traditional Jewish fear of military service also played an important role—as foreigners they would not have to serve in the army.
During the last few years, the situation has changed considerably. Two years ago, the French parliament passed a new naturalization law which made it much easier to obtain French citizenship, so that now 80,000 foreigners, instead of the former 10,000, are each year becoming French citizens.
Naturalization is now easier, and the attitude towards it on the part of the Jewish immigrants has also changed materially. Consequently there is now a great mass movement in favor of naturalization. To “become a French-
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