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Jews are leaving France and moving to Israel in unprecedented numbers this year.

With the departures expected to surpass 5,000, France could pull ahead of the U.S. for Jewish emigration to Israel, known as aliya. Usually, making aliya is a cause for celebration. But in France this year, it's tinged with bitterness.

The country, which has Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish populations, is experiencing repercussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Paris, pro-Palestinian demonstrations have turned violent, as some demonstrators attacked a synagogue and clashed with riot police.

But even before the latest Mideast flare-up, French Jews say there's been a rise in anti-Semitism in France and across Europe.

Four people were gunned down outside the Jewish museum in neighboring Belgium in May, and three Jewish schoolchildren and a teacher were killed in the southern city of Toulouse in 2012. Both attacks were carried out by young Frenchmen of North African descent, who had recently returned from fighting alongside extremists in places like Syria.

The combination of this violence and the stagnant French economy is fueling the emigration. So far this year, more than 2,000 French Jews have left, up from 580 during the same period last year.

Earlier this month, a Paris synagogue overflowed during a goodbye ceremony for the latest group of Jews to move to Israel.

Among them are Steven Taieb and Meyer Zouari. Both are leaving their families to move to Israel this summer. Armed with computer science degrees, they hope to find good jobs.

Though both young men claim they've always wanted to move to the Holy Land to fully live their faith, they say the recent climate precipitated their departure. Zoauri's father David believes his son made the right decision.

"France is no longer the beautiful country it was," he says. "It's being invaded. Its secularism is being compromised. All you see are women wearing veils in the streets. And mosques are sprouting up everywhere."

France, Zoauri says, is turning into a Muslim country.

Both of the young Jewish men say they grew up in the Paris suburbs, in mixed communities where Jews, Muslims and Christians co-existed.

Taieb says his family never had any problems: "We all said hello to each other and respected each other."

But Zouari had a different experience living amid his Muslim peers.

"I never knew if someone might try to do something to me just because I was Jewish," he says. "For example, I never felt comfortable wearing my skull cap outside. That would have been a provocation."

After singing a beautiful ballad about Jerusalem, the Paris congregation listens to France's head rabbi, who reminds them of their attachment to France, the first country to give Jews full rights as citizens in 1791. Aside from the tragic deportations during the World War II, France has generally been a haven for Jews. Since the second world war, the French government has redoubled efforts to make Jewish families feel welcome.

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