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Friday February 9, 2007

It’s not just French Jews feeling the heat of hatred

by jeff saperstein

Each year I teach a university seminar in Paris and connect with French friends, family, and colleagues. Through annual visits and conversations I can get a “finger in the wind” sense of the mood of French Jews in comparison to years past.

This year I spoke to 60 French Jewish community activists about Jewish power in America, so my circle of opinion has widened. I am sorry to report that there is a state of high anxiety among many of our French compatriots — Jew and non-Jew. They have a feeling of foreboding, not for what is now, but for what they believe will come.

During my presentation, a woman said to me, “You American Jews are 15 years behind us. Our universities are now filling with anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist professors (funded through Islamic sources) who bring attacks on Israel into the classroom regardless of what the course subject is. What are you doing in America to stop what has become the reality in our universities from happening to you?”

At a dinner party with someone I met who is not Jewish we spoke about how the U.S. and Europe should together address global issues. He says to me, “Yes, we must address global warming and the Palestinians.” Putting the Palestinian conflict on par with global warming is just taken for granted since everybody “seems to know” that the source of so much turmoil in the world is rooted in the Palestinian issue. The implication is that putting pressure on Israel for concessions is the way forward for global peace.

A non-Jewish colleague confides to me, “I am worried about my country. People around me are blind to the threat we face from within. What will life here be like for my children?”

A Jewish community activist and close friend observes, “People here are fickle. The French will adamantly express an opinion for or against the U.S. or Israel and just change their position and then speak just as strongly for the opposite view. They are afraid to have conviction.”

The metrics of fluctuating numbers of anti-Semitic incidents or physical assaults does not really portray the daily onslaught of the new anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic slant of the newspapers and magazines, the media and intellectuals’ demonizing of Israel, and the increased polarization in France. The 800-pound gorilla standing over almost every conversation with both my Jewish and non-Jewish contacts is the increased alienation and threat from a large young Muslim population that is both actively anti-Jewish as well as anti-French.

Many believe there is a gathering violent storm about to be unleashed, and the 2006 riots were just the beginning. I hear more often from Jews there is no future for us in France. They look to Israel and the U.S. as havens when the time comes to go. For some, the upcoming national election in April between Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royale will be a telling harbinger for what will come. Sarkozy is known as a defender of Jewish security and the rule of law, while Royale is a mystery.

This is a complex situation and many of us tend to simplify that France is just anti-Semitic or that they do not protect their Jewish citizens. This is not true. There is no institutional anti-Semitism in France and there have been strides to take hate crimes more seriously. However, the government cannot always protect Jews from the enmity of what is a significant group of hostile Muslims. A visit to any synagogue is like going through security at the airport. There are French soldiers with guns and Jewish community people checking bags. Shabbat shalom is never assured in France.

So what can we do? Boycotting French products to punish the country for perceived anti-Semitism is both futile and counterproductive. Jews already feel isolated in France. A boycott will hurt them most and will accomplish nothing positive. We can connect with them both institutionally and personally by bringing their professors, authors, and community activists to the Bay Area for events. We can include Jewish France in our missions and personal trips. Most of all, we must assure them they are not alone and forgotten.

Jeff Saperstein is a Bay Area Jewish community activist and instructor at San Francisco State University.

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