While in Paris, Theodor Herzl described France’s Jews as “so little Jewish and yet not quite French…” These words may have been true, years ago, but are so no longer. Weakened and decimated by World War II, French Jewry was to know a fate similar to the American Jewish community at the dawn of the century, and within proportions, to that of Israel at its birth.
Successive waves of refugees from Eastern Europe melded into old time French Jewry, escaping what had once been the lands of their great culture and had become that of their suffering.
These “ostjuden” (eastern Jews) brought with them the remains of a warm and living Judaism as well as a sense of political combativity linked with the heritage of their fathers. Their wish to preserve this heritage was often expressed in their impassioned defense of Yiddish culture. Two papers in Yiddish are still published in Paris: “Unzer Wort” and the Communist “Naie Presse.”
These eastern Jews have shown a pathetic obstinacy to organize “landmanschaften,” groups of people from the same towns in Poland or Russia, in order to meet and to try to sort out the problems of their and their children’s integration.
These Jews from Eastern Europe who were already giving a Jewish quality to some areas of Paris, were soon joined by others–Jews from Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. Later came the Jews of Algeria, who were not refugees but French citizens since 1870, although some of them were discovering the “motherland” for the first time in their lives; to many of them it looked somewhat like a new continent.
If the flood of refugees was a blessing for the community, it remained for long, and still is, a real burden which the public authorities and the American Joint Distribution Committee have helped to bear.
ROLE OF NORTH AFRICAN JEWS
The North African Jews poured fresh forces into the community and radically changed its social and professional profile. The French Jewish community now consists to a large extent of workers, small employes and small shopkeepers who are shaping the new outlook of the Jewish community and making it similar to the general French population.
The North African Jews have integrated remarkably well into communal organizations and regenerated the norms and values of Jewish life. French Jewry thus succeeded where Israel has failed so far in integrating the Oriental Jews. Sefardis of France are quite preoccupied by aspects of poverty in Israel where so many Jews from Arab countries live.
However, the Sefardi leaders in France trust that Israeli society will find a fair solution to this problem: justice and the greater interest of the Jewish State demand that its solution should be high on the list of Israel’s priorities.
Politically, the Jewish community disagrees with the attitude of the French government towards Israel. They pay tribute, however, to the fact that France remains a country of asylum whatever its political or economical situation.
This open door policy explains how the Jewish community has increased in size from 150,000 people after the war to the present 700,000, half of whom are Sefardi and the other half Ashkenazi. Split up by the tragedies of history, these two branches are now meeting and represent a large and promising asset for the future of French Jewry.
HARMONIOUS INTEGRATION OF FACETS
A melting pot of cultures, rites and traditions, the French Jewish community succeeded in harmoniously integrating these two facets of the Jewish people. Now, children, whatever their origin, learn their common history and heritage.
Like American Jewry, the French community is becoming more involved in the life of the country, claiming its own specific and general demands. Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s claim in 1967, that the Jews are an “elite people, domineering and self-assured,” provoked a shock but also a rise in consciousness which actually prompted France’s Jewish community to play an increased role in the country’s social and political life.
Progressively, the community changed from a religious minority to a cultural and political body. It has become influential and Jews no longer hesitate to express themselves. Their link to Israel is strong and deep and the Jewish leadership voices its demands for a more balanced policy towards Israel.
Although the problem of “double allegiance” is still raised, it no longer prevents the Jews from adopting attitudes in accord with their hearts and minds. Herzl could now say that the Jews are “fully French and quite Jewish.”
French Jewry today is far from being frozen into a fixed mold. Doubts, inconsistencies and contradictions sometimes delay its progress. But it is vibrant and vital and exhudes a pride in its Ashkenazi and Sephardi history and culture and feels emotionally close to Israel. Unquestionably, French Jewry can look safely to the future.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
