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Many are poor, unskilled laborers or craftsmen in specialized trades—rugmaking, jewelry, leatherwork—that have little need for their services. Few can find work, and bitterness among the North African Jews is growing stronger. Recently, a Jewish ex-policeman from Constantine stormed into the Marseille headquarters of the United Jewish Fund and demanded a decent suit of clothes so he could find work. "Do you know what I did today?" he roared in shame. "I sat down to lunch at a sidewalk cafe and left without paying." Many French Jews are less than happy to see their ranks swelled by the North African migration. Like most of world Judaism, the Jews of France are predominantly Ashkenazim, who follow the traditions that developed in the ghettos of Central Europe during the Middle Ages.
Most of the North African Jews, who follow the stricter Sephardic tradition, regard the Ashkenazim in France as doctrinally unorthodox and lax in their observance of religious duties. French Jews, in turn, privately dismiss the Sephardim as "backward and bigoted," fear the "superstitions" that the newcomers could impose upon Judaism in France.
* After the U.S., the Soviet Union and Israel.