Chief Rabbi of France Jacob Kaptan yesterday denounced racism and appealed for “human brotherhood,” in response to the recent resurgence of anti-Arab sentiment in France–Rabbi Kaplan made the appeal in the town of Nancy at a ceremony in memory of those deported during World War II.
Referring to racial reprisals which cost the lives of seven Algerian workers following the murder of a Marseilles bus driver by a mentally ill Algerian worker, Rabbi Kaplan said such racist acts “risk becoming a grave danger for those wh do not act in time to thwart them.”
Rabbi Kaplan, taking as his subject the commandment, “Thou shall love thy neighbor as thy self,” said: “Our neighbors are not only other Jews, but also, Christians and Moslems, not only white men but black men as well, not only Europeans but men throughout the world.”
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