Behind the Headlines the Jews of Normandy

— There were no posters, no trappings, no ribbons to cut, no flag raising.

Yet, one knew immediately on this cool brisk day in October, in this capital of Nor – mandy which bristles with spires and towers, that Jewish History was not only being made, but more important that the world was being reminded that the roots of the Jews of France go deep.

What was happening in this ancient courtyard of the Palace of Justice — once the town hall — was the formal dedication of the archaeological discovery of a medieval Jewish building found by accident beneath the parking lot of the Palace. More significant, the building is apparently the only Jewish institution of higher learning in Europe whose walls have survived either from antiquity or the Middle Ages.

Uncovered in the excavations, which were to be dedicated that day, were Hebrew graffiti on the walls of this academy of higher learning of the Normanic Jews. Thus, the discovery of Raven’s Jewish history in the form of archaeological explorations was, in effect, the announcing to the world what has been known perhaps only a few scholars: that Rouen was a most important medieval center in France for Jewish studies, overshadowing even Paris.

On the minds, too, of all present, from the plainclothes police, to officials, to Jewish and Christian and Moslem religious leaders, was the abominable terrorist bombing exactly 10 days earlier at the synagogue in Rue Copernic in Paris that killed four and wounded 32 persons.

THE SYMBOLISM OF THE DEDICATION

The dedication in Rouen — which is a little over on hour’s drive from Paris — had been cleaned months month earlier. But in mid-October, those present sought to paint the pictures of symbolism that were to be imprinted that afternoon in the form of a formal dedication of a Jewish school of learning dating back to about the year 1090. (Some claim the building was a synagogue).

Symbolic, too, were the people who arrived a the block limousines that pulled into the historic courtyard. They had travelled from France, from Israel, from Paris and from Rouen. The cars carried Rouen Mayor Jean Lecanuet; Minister of Culture of France Jean Philippe Lecat; Chief Rabbi of France Jacob Kaplan; Rabbi of Roven; C. Perez; Israel’s Ambassador to France, Meir Rosenne; Council of Representative Jewish Organizations president Alain de Rothschild; American Jewish scholar Prof. Norman Golb, a specialist in Hebrew and Judoeo-Arabic studied who had mush to do with the location of the structure as well as the meaning and significance.

AFFIRMATION OF THE ROLE OF FRENCH LAWS

Symbolically, the Palace itself fronts on the Rue aux Juifs (the Street of the Jews). The words of Rabbi Kaplan were echoed and echoed over and over again in a clear message: the dedication was an affirmation that the Jews of France were Frenchmen and Frenchwomen long before other regions of France ever became part of France. Lecat said that the Jews lived in France before the country bore the name of France. He also commented on the contributions of Jews to French civilization. The Mayor cited the historic significance of the yeshiva, the fact that it is a perpetuation of Jewish history in Rouen, the fact that it is a sign of hope.

Launched here also was the inspiration and strength, of the message of Kaplan and others, that “Jews and non Jews must fight the same battle, with the same determination, to reject racism and anti-Semitism.”

That was the symbolism of Rouen. The dignified ceremony, the speeches, the people in the audience, the dignitaries, the rabbis, the monks, the background of the Palace of Justice itself, could not but remind Christians and Jews that the Jews of France, now the fourth largest Jewish community in the world, have played a significant role in France — whose very government and buildings show evidence of Jewish scholarship and learning; in this case, a medieval yeshiva in Rouen.