The rise is explained by an 'increase in anti-

Israel expects the number of French Jews emigrating to the country in 2015 to reach up to 15,000, following the killings at a Paris kosher grocery last Friday.

The number of French-Jewish immigrants was already predicted to rise sharply from last year's record number of 7,000, after more than doubling since 2013.

Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency promoting emigration to Israel, said his original estimate for 2015 was 10,000 French immigrants, but is now expecting it to be much higher.

The Jewish Agency promoting emigration to Israel, said the original estimate for 2015 was 10,000 French immigrants, but is now expecting it to be much higher after the attack at a Paris kosher grocery (pictured)

'It will probably be much more than 10,000,' he said at a Jewish Agency meeting for French considering emigration.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liebermann, at his side, said about 700 Jews had attended the session during the day.

Both men flew to Paris with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a mass protest on Sunday that united world leaders - including Muslim and Jewish statesmen - with over a million French to honour 17 victims of Islamist militant attacks.

They later attended a memorial service for all the victims at the Paris Grand Synagogue with Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

The victims died in three days of violence that began with an attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday and ended with a hostage-taking at a kosher supermarket on Friday. Four were killed at the Jewish shop.

Support: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen visiting the scene in Paris, has said that every Jew who wanted to move to Israel would be 'welcomed with a warm heart and open arms'

In 2014, 7,086 Jews emigrated from France to Israel, the highest number in the world, up from 3,293 in 2013.

France was followed by 5,913 Jewish migrants from Ukraine and Moldova and 4,827 from Russia, Belarus and the Baltic States.

COMEDIAN FACE JAIL AFTER JOKE ABOUT KOSHER SHOP KILLER A controversial French comedian is facing up to seven years in prison for inciting terrorism with a Facebook joke. Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a 48-year-old known simply as Dieudonne, was in custody at a police station in Paris. Dieudonne, who has convictions for anti-Semitism, joked that his humour was no different to Charlie Hebdo, comparing himself to terrorist Amedy Coulibaly, who took hostages at a kosher supermarket in Paris on Friday, killing four Jews and a policewoman. 'Tonight, as far as I'm concerned, I feel like Charlie Coulibaly' he wrote. It was a play on words of 'Je suis Charlie' (I am Charlie), the phrase that has become a rallying cry for free speech supporters around the world following last week's massacre. Dieudonne said: 'For a year, I have been treated like public enemy number one, while I seek to do nothing but make people laugh.' But Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who visited Paris's Jewish quarter in the Marais last Monday, described Dieudonne's remarks as 'contemptible'. He said Dieudonne faced court action for 'a lack of respect and a willingness to stir up hatred and division.' Dieudonne faces up to seven years in prison and a fine of around £80,000 under France's strict anti-terror laws. Advertisement

In a statement late on Saturday, Netanyahu said an Israeli governmental committee would convene in the coming week to find ways to boost Jewish immigration from France and other European countries 'which are being hit by terrible anti-Semitism'.

Netanyahu's said that every Jew who wanted to move to Israel would be 'welcomed with a warm heart and open arms.'

'To all the Jews of France and to all the Jews of Europe, I wish to say: the State of Israel is not only the place to which you pray, the State of Israel is also your home,' he said.

Roger Cukierman, head of CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions' umbrella group, said after meeting President Francois Hollande that he was promised army protection if needed for Jewish institutions in France.

'They told us that all schools and all synagogues will be protected in measures that, if necessary, extend beyond the police to the army,' he said.

The attacker who took hostages at the kosher supermarket said he was targeting the Jewish community. The gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed as police broke the siege.

The two gunmen who attacked the weekly Charlie Hebdo, killing its editor-in-chief and leading cartoonists, belonged to the same Paris-based Islamist militant cell, police said.

France has the largest Jewish population in Europe, having grown by nearly half since World War Two to total some 550,000 according to CRIF.