A top American rabbi who chided the French for failing to back the American-led war on Iraq was met with scattered boos by a crowd at Paris’ Hotel de Ville, the historic city hall.
Sitting in the audience during that chilly reception was Livermore rabbi David Roller.
He was one of 36 American rabbis and the only Californian who went to Paris earlier this month with a delegation from the North American Boards of Rabbis for a conference aimed at addressing anti-Semitism in France along with the strained relations between the two countries. The event was also sponsored by the World Jewish Congress in cooperation with the European Catholic Church.
Roller got a small taste of that bad blood at the city hall event during a speech by Marc Schneier, a New York-based rabbi who serves as NABOR’s president. The social-action group, formed in 1999, represents about 3,000 rabbis from all streams of Judaism.
Addressing a mostly French audience of about 1,500 people, Schneier “spoke out about France,” said Roller, a 54-year-old non-congregational rabbi. NABOR’s president was greeted by a smattering of boos when he told the crowd that “we’re outraged that our oldest European friend and ally is speaking out against us,” Roller said.
The East Bay rabbi said he “wasn’t overwhelmingly surprised” by the response. “Overall, there are a lot of [French] people who feel the same as [President Jacques] Chirac does,” he said.
Given the timing of the trip, just a week before the U.S. attack on Iraq, Roller admits to some jitters. “I was very, very nervous myself,” he said. War “was in all our minds.”
The rabbis on the trip held a spectrum of positions on U.S. military action, Roller said: “Three Jews, 10 opinions.”
As for his, Roller, who once worked at the World Trade Center, said he considers Saddam Hussein “a danger” and feels the U.S. attack is “doing a job that should have been finished. I support our troops and pray for a speedy end to it.”
Despite the backdrop of impending war and fears about a rise of anti-Jewish sentiment in France, Roller said the trip also produced some unexpected moments of solidarity.
One came in a meeting with the iman of the Muslim Institute of the Mosque of Paris. “He walked the walk,” said Roller of Muslim leader Dalil Doubakeur, whose mosque sheltered Jews during the Holocaust. “I felt this is a brother.”
Noting that Doubakeur expressed outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Roller, who lost friends in New York, said he left the meeting with a “tremendous kinship. I felt we have a friend here we ought to cultivate.”
In contrast, Roller was troubled by comments made by Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, the converted son of Polish Jews who is the archbishop of Paris.
Roller, who lost relatives in the Holocaust, was disturbed when the archbishop said anti-Semitism was an outgrowth of general urban violence. “Anti-Semitism is anti-Semitism,” Roller said. “It’s not caused by quote unquote urban violence.”
Roller said he considered the comment a dodge of responsibility by a key member of the church.
“The Catholic Church in my view is trying to clean up its act and it’s 50 years too little and too late.” Overall, Roller described interfaith communications in Europe as “30 to 40 years behind where we are.”
The rabbi was more reassured by comments from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, who told the group that his government was taking a hard line against anti-Semitic acts.
“He came out stating they are not going to put up with this garbage at all,” Roller said, noting that Sarkozy cited beefed-up police presence.
The rabbis made other stops not normally included on an American tourist’s itinerary. They traveled to a suburban day school and a synagogue hit by separate firebomb attacks about a year ago.
“They’re more cautious now,” Roller said of the French Jews he met.
Before taking the trip, Roller and others received warnings from acquaintances. “Some people were told not to wear kippahs in public,” he said. But the rabbis, who had a motorcycle escort during their stay, disregarded that advice.
Apart from the boos at the Hotel de Ville, Roller, who speaks French, described his interactions as “very warm.” French Jews welcomed the American rabbis but also appeared puzzled by their trip, Roller said. “They’re happy to know they have world support from their brethren.”