The Jewish community in France has an illustrious history. The first to be emancipated in Europe, Jews have made it into the crème de la crème of French society. They have become influential figures in politics, academia, economics, entertainment, and more. And yet, the same community that 30 years ago experienced its golden age in France is now experiencing a momentous period of distrust.
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Three weeks ago, France's high court ruled not to prosecute Kobili Traore, a Muslim man who killed his Jewish neighbor Sarah Halimi in 2017.
Why? Traore smoked a lot of marijuana before the murder, and that made him "not responsible for his actions," the court decided. More than 7,000 people gathered at the Trocadero Square in Paris in protest of the ruling and to seek justice for the victim.
Unfortunately, the Halimi case is the latest of a series of antisemitic events that have caused a rift between France and its Jews.
In 2003, Jewish French DJ Sebastian Selam was killed by his Muslim neighbor and childhood friend Adel Amastaibou, who was sent to a psychiatric infirmary. In 2006, Ilan Halimi was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by a group of Muslims. In 2012, an Islamic State terrorist opened fire in a school in Toulouse and killed Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, 5-year-old Arie and 3-year-old Gabriel, as well as 8-year old Myriam Monsonego. In 2015, Elsa Cayat, a columnist for the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, was killed by two French Muslim brothers, along with 11 other employees. Two days later, a terrorist opened fire in the Hypercacher kosher supermarket in Paris and killed Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, François-Michel Saada, and Yoav Hattab. In 2018, Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was killed in her home by a young Muslim.
According to data published by the French Jewish community's security service, there was a 50% decrease in the number of antisemitic incidents in 2020 (399 compared to 697 the year before), but there was almost no decrease in the number of physical assaults on Jews (45), despite the coronavirus pandemic and multiple lockdowns.
Add to that the most recent uptick in antisemitism in the wake of the Israel-Gaza conflict. Thousands of Muslims took to the streets of Paris and marched in areas heavily populated by Jews. The local government banned the protests for fear of them turning into violent riots, but to no avail. Some 4,200 policemen were deployed to the streets of Paris to disperse any illegal gatherings and arrested dozens. All Jews were advised to close their businesses early and not to wear distinguishably Jewish signs outdoors. Authorities advised them to stay at home on Shabbat altogether. Local synagogues, which haven't even returned to full functioning because of the coronavirus pandemic, reduced their activities even more.
Besides the fear of being targeted for an attack, French Jewry feels that they are being betrayed by the local government, especially law enforcement, and the elite, which created an alliance between the Left and Islam. And it is not the first time something like this has happened. It took France 40 years to officially admit the role it played in the Holocaust, and the public conversation on this matter still continues.
When in 1980 Arab terrorists carried out an attack at a synagogue in Paris, killing Israeli citizen Aliza Shagrir and three non-Jewish passers-by, the government condemned the "terror attack against Jews that went to the synagogue and innocent Frenchman who were walking by."
It has been more than 30 years, and France still has not prosecuted the suspect, a Canadian citizen of Lebanese origin. In November 2014, he was extradited to Canada.
The two Palestinian terrorists, suspected of bombing the Chez Jo Goldenberg Jewish restaurant in Paris' Marais district on 9 August 1982 that killed six people, still live in Jordan and Ramallah.
The high court's decision not to prosecute Halimi's killer is the latest in the series of breaches in the trust between French Jewry and the government.
Some of the French Jews that were interviewed for this article asked not to be mentioned by name. Even though what they said is published in Israel, in Hebrew, they are afraid that their neighbors or co-workers would find out and trouble would ensue. Others were cautious in how they expressed themselves and could not speak their mind freely. That alone is enough to make one understand the feeling of terror French Jews experience daily.
Many admitted they don't see a bright future in France. The country, in their opinion, is already in a civil war. It is being waged by the French and Muslims, and it will only get worse. Some 60,000 French Jews have already immigrated to the Jewish state in recent years, and thousands more moved to the United States, Britain, and Australia. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic prompted even more Jews to look for options elsewhere.
And yet, many also said they felt like a civil war was lurking around the corner in Israel as well. They feel trapped.
Nicole (pseudonym) is in her early 50s. She has been working for many years in a prominent French media outlet. The media's deliberate disregard of the Halimi case is something she experienced personally.
"For four years, the media did not deal with the murder at all. We did not call on investigations. We did not write opinions on it. There was complete silence on the affair. The public media has a way of thinking that makes certain subjects invisible. It's a kind of censorship that has taken over our work without anyone having said anything to us officially.
"In editorial meetings, each time, a different reason came up as to why the affair should not be addressed. First, because it happened around the presidential elections, they said they didn't want to strengthen Marine Le Pen and her political party out of fear that she would win. Then they said they weren't sure that the murder had antisemitic motives.
"After President [Emmanuel] Macron himself announced that the murder stemmed from antisemitism, they said that experts should be the ones to determine whether the killer was in a psychotic state or not, and that professionals did not disagree on the matter. It felt like the approach was dictated by those in charge.
"A few days ago, out of nowhere, we received instructions to emphasize the large number of casualties in the Gaza Strip compared to the low number in Israel, especially the number of Palestinian children injured. People who work in the news don't even dare to write articles on what's going on on the Israeli side, because they know that they will immediately be labeled as "fascists," especially if you are Jewish.
"Nor do they dare offer articles about the war that is already being waged in the suburbs [of Paris] by immigrant communities, the assaults on policemen, and the threat to their lives and the lives of their families.
"In the last few years, there emerged a private kind of media, especially TV channels, that do report these things and have an open dialogue about what is happening in France, including the Halimi case and its serious consequences. Two parallel worlds have been created: the public media that ignores reality and a few [private] media outlets that reflect reality and are growing more and more popular."
Q: How can you continue working in such an environment?
"I feel very lonely at work, because I think differently than others. I didn't have the courage to ask why no articles were written about Sarah Halimi, and every day I felt like I was exploding.
"I'm thinking about making aliyah to Israel, but it is not simple. I am not sure that I will find a job there, that my standard of living there will be the same as here. Many Jews [from France] have immigrated to Israel and returned, because life was difficult for them there. If you don't have strong economic support, it is difficult to integrate into Israeli society. So I will continue to deal with the situation here until it becomes impossible."
"Jews live well in France," said Isaac Touitou (48), who is the principal of the Jewish ORT school in Montreuil in the eastern suburbs of Paris. Some of France's worst terrorist attacks took place not far from the school. Many Muslims live near the institution and anti-Israel demonstrations are often held in front of the building. As a result, the school looks more like a fortress. The main entrance is surrounded by concrete barriers, and the school has a strict visitors policy.
Interestingly, the school also has non-Jewish students, including Muslims. The decision to accept these students was unwelcome by many parents who were worried their children would be exposed to Islamic religious missionaryism.
Touitou continued: "The government – both Left and Right – under presidents [Jacques] Chirac, [Nicolas] Sarkozy, [Francois] Hollande, and Macron - supports the community. There is no antisemitism on the part of the state. You can live as a Jew here, eat in kosher restaurants, go to Jews schools. Jewish life is prosperous here, all of its streams."
Many ORT students have relatives in Israel, yet very few make aliyah. Touitou and his wife both have relatives in the Jewish state as well, but do not plan to move.
"Although, there are places, especially around Paris, where Jews feel unwanted, and they move to certain neighborhoods within Paris or close to it. There are waves of antisemitic attacks – insults, curses, physical assaults. There are also dramas, like the murder of Sarah Halimi, Ilan Halimi, the massacre in Hypercacher. Jews are a good target for those who want to carry out terrorist attacks. But it comes in waves, and then normal life resumes.
"People in the Jewish community experience the situation differently, depending on where they live, whether they were a kippah or not. We try to get young people to come into daily contact with people from different backgrounds and learn together. We also have Muslim teachers. We have brought Muslim students on trips to Israel. We organize trips to concentration camps in Poland."
Q: And yet, security measures in the school are at their peak.
"We have to be careful. We had antisemitic graffiti sprayed on the front of the school. There are antisemitic attacks on students, usually robbings, due to the common perception that Jews are rich. They wait for children outside of school, take their cellphones, credit cards.
"When there is a crisis in the Middle East, we immediately feel the tension. And yet, a quarter of our students are not Jewish, they are Muslim and Christian. There is a lot of mutual respect, and we want to maintain that. This approach worries those who want to close themselves off in their communities. This worries certain families."
Touitou said the Halimi murder shocked the Jewish students at the school.
"They do not understand how such a thing could happen. There is a strong sense of injustice. They talked about someone [else] who threw a dog out of the window and was sentenced to a year in prison, and meanwhile, Sarah Halimi's killer might not go to jail at all.
"The entire Jewish community has felt abandoned in recent years. The attack in the school in Toulouse was a traumatic experience for me personally. It's an awful thing, to enter a school and kill children.
"The murder of Ilan Halimi was a terrible thing too. When neo-Nazis desecrated dozens of Jewish graves in the small town of Carpentra in the south of France in 1990, hundreds of thousands, led by then-president Francois Mitterrand, took to the streets to protest. There is no such response to recent murders.
"However, there is a certain change in the French public's opinion: as long as only the Jews were a target for terrorism, they quickly returned to their routine of disregard. After the major terrorist attacks in Paris in 2016, the attitude of the French society began to be more understanding and sympathetic.
In any case, "I do not see an end to this community. Many of our friends do not intend on moving to Israel. Some people return from Israel, because of the difficulties of integrating there."
On the day of the interview, ORT students were sent home earlier than usual. "We received information about an anti-Israel demonstration in Sarcelles, and we do not want students who live there to get into trouble," Touitou said.
Mark Botbol (53) is the branch manager of Hypercacher. He began working at the supermarket after the terrorist attack that took place there.
"After the attack, the relationship with the Muslims even improved," he said. "People came to express sympathy. There are Muslims who come to shop here specifically to show that they stand by us."
The supermarket has many visitors, ranging from religious Jews to Muslim women in their traditional hair covering. According to Botbol, "80% of the employees in the store are Muslims. Most of our neighbors are Muslims, and so are many of our customers. The relationship with them is excellent."
Q: It doesn't reflect the situation in its entirety, does it? Antisemitic attacks do happen.
"Yes, but rarely. But there are extremists in every religion, including by us, the Jews. Because of the terror attack, security in our store was increased, there is round-the-clock surveillance here. You will not see the French guards here. They are dressed as civilians. Many cameras were also installed. There is no way to prevent another attack, but if I gave into fear, I would never leave my home. If I am not mistaken, it is also not the Israeli way to do things, to stay at home."
Arie Abitbol (40) is the Regional Director for France at the Jewish Agency for Israel. He moved to the Jewish state in 1998, "not out of necessity, but out of Zionism." He stressed that not all those who make aliyah from France do so because they have to, but due to a deep connection to their homeland.
"In Israel, they only speak of Jews in France in terms of antisemitism. I see a community that is very committed to Israel and what is happening there. Judaism here is very Zionistic. Those who live in the more bourgeois quarters of Paris do not experience antisemitism, and still, a lot of people from there move to Israel," he said.
Speaking of the Halimi murder case, Abitbol pointed out that the French media ignored more than just that.
"The beheading of the teacher who showed his students cartoons of [Prophet] Muhammad and the murder of policemen also dropped very quickly from the public agenda.
"France has a problem dealing with the dilemma of immigrants and their attitude to France, the authorities, the police, the Jews. They cover it all up. Many French people say that just like the murder of Sarah Halimi is being covered up, so are many other things. It is no longer just the Jews' problem."
Another challenge, according to Abitbol, is the government's latest efforts to curb Muslim religious separatism, of which the Jews are the "collateral damage."
"Because they are worried that they will be accused of favoritism, they [the government] has also cut financial support for Jewish organizations, which is crucial for maintaining Jewish identity."
According to Abitbol, living as a Jew in Europe is becoming increasingly more difficult.
"In Switzerland, Jews are more limited already. In Belgium, kosher slaughter was banned. If France joins in with such an approach, we will have to import kosher meat from Argentina or Poland, and that will be much more expensive.
"There is a real concern for Jewish identity in France. The level of intermarriage here stands at about 50%. It's an entire generation that's disappeared. Some become more and more religious; others run away from religion."
Gabriel Blum (26), a native of Paris, attended a Jewish school growing up. He was in 12th grade when the terror attack in Toulouse happened.
"I began to ask myself what I was doing in life. Why I go to synagogue, why I put on tefillin. I came to Israel alone to yeshiva, and I fell in love with the country and stayed.
"After finishing my studies in yeshiva, I enlisted in the IDF, I was a fighter and then a commander. Instead of serving for a year and a half, as new immigrants do, I served three years. My entire family made aliyah after me. Today I live in Petach Tikva."
Blum is a Jewish Agency emissary who traveled back to France as part of the Israeli Experience program, which brings thousands of Jewish students to Israel each year to help fortify their Jewish identity and connect them with Israeli society.
Haim Musicant (69) is the deputy president of B'nai B'rith in France. He described the latest Israel-Gaza conflict as a "shock to the Jews of France."
"Only a few weeks ago everyone was praising Israel for how it was handling the coronavirus pandemic, and the Abraham Accords … French Jews had a feeling that Israel is strong, that nothing can happen to it … And suddenly, missiles from Gaza are launched into Jerusalem and elsewhere, and Israeli Arabs are burning down the country.
"We have no certainty about our future here [in France], and now there is also anxiety and distress about the situation in Israel.
As for the situation in France, "There is a feeling that the police in France do not know how to handle what is happening here, and judges rule that criminals are victims. Many Jews feel they are no longer protected. There is an anti-Jewish Muslim coalition that hides behind anti-Israelism.
"Next year will be the presidential election. Last time, Macron managed to defeat Marine Le Pen. In a year, his ability to govern will be judged, as is his ability to deal with the coronavirus and his personal security situation. The Macron government seems to be in a panic. The younger generation is going to vote for Le Pen.
Surprisingly, "the one who stands by Israel today is actually Le Pen herself. She realized that if she wanted to come to power, she had to change her image and stop being her father's daughter."
Le Pen's father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, is the founder of the far-right National Front party. He has been accused and convicted several times at home and abroad of xenophobia and antisemitism.
"As we move away from the Holocaust, the past loses its centrality. The young generation doesn't care that Le Pen's father was an extreme leftist and worked together with Nazi collaborators. They do not live with a sense of guilt because of the Holocaust, and have no positive image of Israel.
"Even Jews tend to say: we tried the right with Chirac and Sarkozy. We tried the left with Hollande. We tried the center with Macron. And they did nothing. What is left? Marine Le Pen.
"Jews in France are less than one percent of the population. They feel isolated and ask themselves what to do. There is general confusion and fear. France is afraid of itself and the Muslims, and Jews ask themselves who will protect them.
"French politicians used to have Jewish advisors. Today their advisors are Muslims. After the Second Intifada, French Jews became Jews in France. They do not know whether to leave or wait a little longer."
Q: How about making aliyah?
"I am not sure French Jews have the courage to take their future into their own hands. They know their situation here is not great, but they are afraid to leave. Life is still good here, France is a prosperous country. Israel is like a dream that cannot be attained. One needs money to live there, a profession, knowledge of Hebrew. The events in the last few weeks have made making such a decision even more difficult.
"In 1968, with the feeling of euphoria that followed the Six-Day War, all the leaders of the Jewish community in Strasbourg immigrated to Israel. Perhaps if all the leaders of the Jewish community in France took such a step, it would affect the members of those communities."
Nissim Isvy (58) is the principal of the Ozar Hatorah religious school in Sarcelles in the northern suburbs of Paris. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and his family moved to France in 1973. Almost fifty years later, he feels he still does not belong in France.
"The feeling is that we are not in our country and that we should leave. But that is also what Jews in Israel are told. So we're not home anywhere."
Ozar Hatorah has much less security compared to ORT. Students here do not get attacked outside of school, nor does the school receive worrisome phone calls. In the city itself, however, there have been assaults on Jews.
"Since the Second Intifada, one can murder a Jew in France because he is a Jew – in a school, in a supermarket, at home. The Arab-Israeli conflict has made its way to Europe, especially to France.
"I lived in an Arab country, I experienced a lot of hatred there. I was afraid to go to the grocery store under our house because every time we were called "dirty Jews." Arabs would spit when they saw us.
"When we moved to France, we felt we had finally reached a place where we would feel more secure. The same situation that happened in Morocco is being repeated here.
"We did not wait for the attacks to encourage students to move to Israel. We work on the bond with Israel daily, not just after tragic events. The connection to Israel should not be affected by short-term emotions. I also plan to immigrate to Israel, but I do not know if it will be less dangerous there. There are 200 million Arabs around you. Is that calming?"
Moroccan-born French historian Georges Bensoussan was one of the first ones to warn of the Arab-Muslim antisemitism in France in a book he published in 2002. He was and continues to be boycotted in France due to his academic views on the matter.
"The dividing line among French Jews in terms of experiencing antisemitism is connected to each person's individual situation," he said.
"Firstly, there is an economic dividing line: a Jew in Sarcelles felt the danger 20 years ago, and a Jews who live in Paris' bourgeois neighborhoods will need 15 more years in order to understand the new face of antisemitism.
"There is also a Sephardic-Ashkenazi dividing line, which is must stronger than people think. Ashkenazis live with the memory of the Holocaust, while Jews who came here from North Africa are much more open and happy.
"The level of religiosity is also a dividing line: children who go to Jewish schools and Jews who go to synagogues are clear targets for antisemitism. Whoever does not have a Jewish appearance, is not observant, who has an Ashkenazi name and lives in a bourgeois neighborhood, cannot understand what antisemitism is.
"They don't know the Arab world, they have not heard of the Farhud pogroms in Iraq, and therefore, when they talk about Arab antisemitism, they don't understand what they are talking about. Moreover, compared to the Holocaust, Arab antisemitism does not look terrible.
"Here in the neighborhood, there are Jewish schools, students walk around in kippahs and do not see an atmosphere of terror," said Bensoussan, whose interview was conducted not far from where the Halimi murder occurred.
"The situation is worrying. In modern history, there always were Jews who chose to look the other way and not see the situation for what it is. The rise of Arab antisemitism caused Jews to congregate with themselves and separate from French society.
Just "thirty years ago, France had a self-assured Judaism, an integral part of French society. Now people are afraid and have become invisible. They are scared to stand up for Israel, remove mezuzahs from the doors of their homes, teachers recommend students not to wear kippahs in public.
"The initiative of the Jewish lawyers to bring the Halimi case before a court in Israel, in the hope that justice will be served there, is a disaster. It should be brought before the European Court of Human Rights. To go with it to an Israeli court is to say that the Arabs in France took us out of French society. That's unacceptable."
The lawyer of Sarah Halimi's sister, Gilles-William Goldnadel, disagreed.
"I would have preferred that the French legal system to bring justice. I know the decision to turn to an Israeli court stemmed from desperation, but our client, Sarah's sister, is an Israeli citizen and is asking to respect the law of her country when it comes to antisemitic crimes. The law allows the prosecution of people who committed such crimes outside Israel.
"This affair is another expression of the denial of the existence of criminal Muslim antisemitism in France. We are experiencing an incredible disregard of antisemitism and the suffering it causes Jews."
David (pseudonym) is in his late fifties. He lives in the suburb of Saint-Mandé, east of Paris, an area where many Jews have moved to in recent years.
"We live in a nice ghetto here. Large Jewish ghettoes are developing on both sides of Paris, in the west and the east. Here, 40% of residents are Jewish. Entire buildings. People know each other, go to the same synagogue, there are Jewish stores, during holidays, people walk around wearing kippahs in the street. It feels like a neighborhood in Tel Aviv.
"But we are all very well aware that we are in a very secluded place. The question is how long it will last.
"In my opinion, the French are showing more understanding of our situation. Do they realize that what is happening in Israel is what's in store for France too? I think so. The violence from the Arab-Muslim communities is an intifada that stems from frustration and anger at the French society. It has nothing to do with what is happening in Israel. Until recently, the French refused to see this.
"There are places where Jews are afraid to go. When they leave the ghetto, they encounter antisemitism. My daughter went to a school located 500 meters from Hypercacher. She was deeply affected by the attack there, decided she had no future here and immigrated to Israel."
Rosine Serafin (42) is the secretary-general of the Association of Liberal Jews of Toulouse. She believes in the future victory of collective conscience, logic and humanism. She moved to Israel at the age of 22, during the Second Intifada, but moved back to France two years later.
"I wanted a quieter life to start a family," she said.
"I think the increase in violence against Israel, in France and elsewhere, is the result of the positive image that Israel has had in recent years. The successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the Abraham Accords, the flourishing democracy in an area filled with civil wars, innovation, agricultural aid to Africa.
"The extremists want to destroy this image and to restart the collective manipulation, according to which Palestinians are the victims and Israelis are the criminals. Violence will not win. The future is with all the good things Israel does for humanity. I will return to Israel with my children."
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