27 103
do they ensure that funding keeps coming, but their voting bloc put the current French president, Hollande, into power. This president has taken to bashing Israel, including initiating a vote to give Israel two years to return the territories. French Jews are proudly pro-Israel. Therefore, this Israel-bashing has been perceived within the country as Jew bashing. Worse, it has sent a message to Arab Muslims living in France: you can do anything to Jews. Empowered, those who took the Jews hostage on Friday spent months planning. They had clearly been observing the store and French Jewish habits and knew when to have the greatest impact and hurt the most people. French Jews like their food fresh, and so they shop for Shabbos at the last minute. They buy late, and they buy a lot. Unlike in major American cities, the kosher supermarkets in France are few and far between. This particular supermarket is very popular: it is close enough to home that people can shop there before Shabbos without risking getting stuck in traffic. Usually, hundreds of people crowd the store late in the day. That’s when the terrorists decided to strike. The final tally: three days of bloodshed, three assailants, 17 dead, including 4 Jewish shoppers and 1 Jewish cartoonist, targeted attacks on the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, and a kosher supermarket. For years, police have guarded Jewish
As
the march on Paris demonstrated this week, the French finally realize that the Jews are only the first target. French youth Praying on the streets of Paris; some say Paris is 40 percent Muslim have started studying martial arts, as French Jews have been since 9/11. Anti-Muslim groups are gaining tracThis comes down to walking down the street. tion, and in all likelihood the next French president Samuel Gotsman, a teenager from Miami, visits will be a neo-Nazi. Paris each summer with his father. He reports, “The Even the Jews will vote for her. streets there are narrow. Whenever we pass someThe panic in France is palpable. People utilize one on the street, one of us has to move sideways. the words “Palestinian” and “Israel” as fronts for a As the Jew, it always has to be me.” Once, though, thinly-veiled anti-Semitism and a validation of the Samuel did not, and his shoulder brushed against the attacks. Any tensions in Israel lead to tensions in passerby. The man began cursing. To ensure that France. Samuel and his father would not become “prey,” Fridman has a friend, an optician with a chain of Samuel’s father hit the other man. This stopped eyeglass stores, who is selling his established busi- what could have become a more serious altercation. ness and moving to Israel. Over the past year, the French government The flight to Israel will likely impact the French banned pro-Palestinian marches, but protesters igeconomy, and Fridman is unsure whether the French nored the bans. They continued to smash cars, government has processed that or not. Most French rampage through business centers, and even threw Jews, says Fridman, are in business and employ makeshift bombs at police. Their attacks have escamany people. The cost of labor is high; Jewish busi- lated; now they have begun to attack businesses and nesses pay a lot in taxes; the economic loss of Jews newspapers, slaughtering civilians. on the French economy should be substantial. More than 75,000 French Jews were sent to conThis week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu centration camps during World War II. Jewish peoof Israel arrived at the supermarket to show solidar- ple have not forgotten: both Fridman and Gotsman ity with French Jews. The New York Times reported, will not be returning to France, even for planned vis“Many people waving Israeli flags gathered to cheer its. French aliyah has gone up: around 400 French him, and some said they would seek to immigrate to Jews arrived in Israel in just one week during the Israel because they no longer felt safe in France.” height of the Gaza war. In fact, many moved to cities During the summer, Natalie Melka, a French Jew in the Negev, including Ashkelon and Ashdod. living in New Haven, CT, told TJH that, in France, Despite an ancient Jewish presence in France “If you don’t show signs of Judaism, you’re okay. (the community harkens back to the year 39 CE), a But if you affirm your Jewish identity, you’re at- total of 5,000 French Jews have immigrated to Israel tacked.” by the end of December. French Jews feel more secure in Israel, even when under attack. Over the summer, Natan Sharansky said, ‘’If aliyah predictions for 2014 are met, one percent of French Jews will have moved to Israel this year. Within a single year, and for the first time in history, a Jewish community in the West is sending a full percent of its Jews to build their lives in the State of Israel. We await you in Israel with open arms.” Those who stay in France, Fridman claims, are generally the middle or lower classes who cannot financially uproot themselves, despite their stress and constant fear. After more than a thousand years of history in France, the Jewish community in France is fleeing. Fridman shakes his head. “It’s a doomed Finally being protected, an officer guards a Jewish school after the attacks country.”
JANUARY 15, 2015
The French finally realize that the Jews are only the first target.
schools. But this week, the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that 4,700 police officers would be posted to guard the country’s 700 Jewish schools and other institutions. The big difference: now the officers are armed. But Fridman wonders like many other French Jews, “What happens when the children leave the school?”
THE JEWISH HOME
Initially, with the first wave of Muslim immigrants into France, Jews felt comfortable appearing Jewish. Anti-Semitism was limited to comments (from native French) on the street. In fact, Fridman says, Jews and Muslims shared mutual respect. With the birth of the second generation of French Arab Muslims, hatred began. That was in the 1990s. By the 2000s, France had become, according to Fridman, “unbearable and dangerous.” Before 9/11, Jews passed mosques after services without incident, despite hundreds of worshippers that poured into the streets. But 9/11 and al Qaeda empowered the Muslim youth. The youth acted out of hand. Their numbers grew. Worse still, they do not work. Through various government welfare programs, one recently convicted (and unemployed) terrorist was making 10,000 euros a month, double a French engineer’s salary. These government programs are here to stay; those who benefit support the socialist/communist parties who want these programs. Arab Muslims have such power that not only