Following a call for German Jews to stop wearing yarmulkes in the interest of safety, Aviv Zonabend, the Jewish deputy mayor of the French city of Toulouse, said that the advice should be followed throughout Europe. He continued that “the future of the Jewish people in Europe is hopeless.”
“My son wears a kippah, but I prefer that he wear a hat on top,” Zonabend said during the interview on Israeli radio. Zonabend himself does not wear a yarmulke but he does wear pendant with a Jewish star, which he usually hides under his shirt.
Jews are the target of one-third of France’s recorded hate crimes even though they constitute only 0.7 percent of the population.
Read more on Times of Israel