You want your grandchildren to go to schools that aren’t guarded by soldiers with machine guns. You feel like an outsider even though Jews have lived here for more than 1,500 years. You are an eyewitness to a toxic mix of growing radical Islam, political gains on the extreme right, a stagnating economy and a surge of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes. This is France today.
You wonder where the Orthodox synagogue is, and then you are guided there by Jews of all ages walking in one direction, men proudly wearing their kippot. You meet people who are working creatively to bridge social gaps, especially between Jews and Muslims. You sit at cafes, in restaurants, in offices with Jewish community leaders, government officials and others who work tirelessly to ensure a safe and viable future for Europe’s largest Jewish community. This too is France today.
We have all read about the dramatic surge of anti-Semitic acts — 508 in France so far in 2015 — including violent attacks against Jewish institutions. And for every horrific deadly attack, from a Jewish school in Toulouse to a kosher supermarket in Paris, countless other incidents have shaken the community.
I was asked to spend a week in France meeting with Jews of all backgrounds as well as government officials to inform myself on the challenges facing Jews there, to share my assessment with leaders and to make recommendations on how to strengthen Jewish institutions and their ability to respond. A year ago, our San Francisco-based Jewish Community Relations Council established a Working Group on Global Anti-Semitism to explore how local communities can respond to global anti-Semitism. My trip was, to a large extent, related to that mandate.
In my 20 meetings in Paris, with a side trip to Marseille, I found dedicated lay and professional leaders working with very limited resources. Most plan to stay but are relieved if their children or grandchildren choose to live elsewhere. This leads to an ambivalence — a desire to strengthen the community in the face of serious threats while being uncertain about the future of the community if a significant percentage of its young, deeply involved Jewish leaders leave. I attended services at two synagogues — one Orthodox and one Liberal — and both have clusters of families making aliyah this summer.
An estimated 500,000 Jews live in France today, supporting hundreds of Jewish institutions. Marseille reportedly has more kosher restaurants than New York. A majority of the Jewish population is Sephardic. One-third of Jewish children attend public schools, one-third Jewish schools and one-third Catholic schools, representing a major movement away from public schools as the community turns inward.
Meanwhile, the Muslim population is estimated at between 4 and 10 million.
For the Jewish community, it is not a question of if another attack will happen, but of when. This is not the 1930s: The French government has been unwavering in its commitment to defend the Jewish community. At the same time, political currents, including pressure from some in the Muslim community, have an adverse effect on attitudes toward Israel, and the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against Israel is rapidly gaining strength. France’s strong laws against racism and boycotts (including laws against Holocaust denial) have been helpful, but only to a point.
In this environment, the Jewish community could throw up its hands. Yet it refuses to do so. The Conseil Representatif des Institutions Juives (CRIF), the central public affairs arm of the Jewish community, has dramatically scaled up its efforts to combat hate on the internet. The Union of Jewish Students has mounted a very effective counter-BDS campaign on France’s campuses. The Daniel Pearl Lodge of B’nai B’rith campaigns on social media, with positive messages about Israel and French Jewry. The Aladdin Project, founded to combat Holocaust denial in the Muslim world, has developed an innovative project to spread knowledge among Jews and Muslims of each other’s histories, religions and cultures. The government’s 100-million-euro campaign to combat anti-Semitism and racism has announced a detailed 40-point plan aimed at every sector of the society, with special attention to young people.
The SPCJ (the Jewish volunteer protection service) trains hundreds of volunteers who commit to a day a week to help secure Jewish institutions, working closely with French soldiers.
This is just a taste of the institutions that are actively engaged, and whose leaders I met.
Consistently, I heard the same three top priorities: 1) security for the community; 2) strengthening relations within civil society; and 3) combating the BDS movement. Serious efforts are aimed at all three priorities, but the needs are monumental and the communal infrastructure modest.
I have shared many recommendations from my meetings in France. One is for our JCRC to maintain its relationship with the CRIF to share experiences and best practices. My journey touched on one of JCRC’s core values: “Kol Yisrael aravim zeh bazeh” (All Israel is responsible for one another). In our global village, that value never seemed more real to me than it did in the cafés and shuls of Paris.
I have now added to my daily searches any news reports on the French Jewish community. We are forever tied together.
Rabbi Doug Kahn is executive director of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council.