Last month we participated in a Jewish Federations of North America mission to Paris, together with Jews from throughout the United States, as well as Toronto. The mission’s goal was to learn in-depth about anti-Semitism in France and elsewhere in Europe. Given the recent Gaza conflict, however, and the ensuing virulent anti-Semitic outbreaks in Paris and many other European cities, our trip became in large measure a solidarity mission to boost our embattled French brethren.
France is home to 600,000 Jews, the world’s third-largest Jewish populace; Paris is home to half of those. Though estimates vary, it is believed there are nearly 10 million Muslims in France, or approximately one-sixth of the country’s 60 million residents. In the first half of 2014, a time frame that omits protests evoked by the summer Gaza conflict, the number of anti-Semitic incidents tabulated by the French authorities increased by 91 percent, in comparison with the first six months of 2013. During July and August in Paris, France experienced a welter of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic protests, with protesters chanting, “Death to the Jews,” and “Jews you don’t belong.”
We were assured by Jewish community leaders that France’s senior government officials and political elite are in complete solidarity with the Jewish community and dedicated to the safety and welfare of France’s Jewish citizens. President François Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls publicly condemned the protesters and maintained that an assault on the Jewish community was an assault on all French people. About 10 percent of the National Assembly is Jewish, and there is a close, ongoing dialogue between senior Jewish communal leadership and high-ranking elected officials.
However, there is no softening the worrisome reality of today’s France for French Jews. This year, the Jewish Agency expects that about 6,000 to 7,000 will make aliyah to Israel, nearly triple that of 2013. In recent years, French Jews have endured a grisly anti-Semitic kidnapping and murder in Paris and a day school homicide in Toulouse, and this past May in Belgium, four Jews were gunned down by a Frenchman in the Jewish museum. Together with attempts to ban circumcision, the wearing religious headgear (including kippot) and kosher ritual slaughter, it makes for a community under siege.
Anti-Semitism is being fomented by a dangerous “cocktail,” as it was characterized to us, composed of radical Muslims along with, increasingly, those on the far left who were inflamed by the Gaza conflict. Ironically, the stridently conservative National Front party, which has historically espoused an anti-Semitic platform, is now moderating its public message in a thus far successful effort to court voters: It has made appreciable inroads in European Parliament elections, and French polls indicate that its leader, Marine Le Pen, has a good shot at being elected president if the vote were held today.
But for all of that, we discerned that Jews in France feel deeply conflicted. We visited with a spectrum of the community: communal and synagogue leaders, political activists, business leaders, students and scholars, as well as with civic and federal government officials. They steadfastly insist this is not Germany circa 1934. They cite how their government is solidly in their corner and reaffirms publicly its support of the Jewish community.
Moreover, Jewish leadership has taken up political advocacy with encouraging early results, emulating AIPAC, as they strive to tackle their domestic challenges head on in a country in which “lobbying” is not part of the political culture. Jews have a long and distinguished history in France, dating more than two millennia. Jews have contributed significantly to the modern French republics and most are determined to defend their religion and culture, while maintaining their strong national French identities. They believe that anti-Semitism represents a threat to French society and to their nation’s core ideal, “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité.” They believe in a strong diaspora and the imperative of European support for Israel. Fundamentally, France is their home.
Still, not surprisingly, aliyah is mounting and the French are among the most active real estate buyers in Israel. There are those like Sarah, 29, whom we met. She grew up as an Algerian immigrant in the Parisian suburbs and declared she was days away from making aliyah, at once drawn to the promise of the “startup nation” and propelled by a conviction that she could not forge a safe and comfortable Jewish life in France for herself or her future family.
We left with an inescapable sense for the French Jewish community’s deep appreciation for our presence and support. Accordingly, we urge diaspora Jews to go and visit France. Don’t shun the country because of how you think Jews may be faring there or how you think the government is or is not being supportive. We are all One People — amcha — and our French brethren will be buoyed by your presence and support. Vivre les Juifs de France!
Howard and Diane Zack are active Jewish communal leaders in San Francisco and the greater Bay Area.