From: Desk of Richard Bernstein, UIA Chairman [mailto:deskofrb@JewishFederations.org]
Sent: Monday, February 9, 2015 2:45 PM
Subject: JFNA France Mission Memo
Setting the scene in Paris
It’s cold and grey. Being a Sunday, the streets are quiet. The city seems subdued.
There are 40 people on the trip, Federation leaders from 18 different cities: large cities, intermediate and small. A very good cross-section.
Sunday Highlights
We gathered as a group for the first time at the magnificent Great Synagogue of Paris, also known as La Victoire Synagogue, where we were welcomed by the president of the congregation, M. Jacques Canet and Rabbi Moshe Sebbag. Built more than 140 years ago with donations from the Rothschild family by the chief architect of the City of Paris, Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, it is testimony to the deep roots of the Jews in Paris.
What followed was a briefing by Tali Ochayon, Chief Executive Deputy of SPCJ (Protection Service of the Jewish Community.) She is tasked with coordinating the security protection, emergency preparation and coordinated response for the network of Jewish institutions in France. One of the things she mentioned that grabbed me was how they have trained the parents of over 12,000 children in Jewish schools in Paris on the basics of security attentiveness and procedures. From this group, close to 1,000 people take turns, on a volunteer basis, to help patrol their school grounds and supplement the security resources provided by the city and federal governments.
Each day these young parents are actively working to protect their children.
From the synagogue, we went to a Jewish Agency sponsored Israel Program and Aliyah Fair. Alan Hoffmann, the Director General and CEO of the Jewish Agency, provided a comprehensive overview of the work of the Jewish Agency in France for the past decade. There is a long and successful history of shlichim deployment, Jewish and Zionist education and involvement with security planning assistance. One remarkable program which was developed a number of years ago in partnership with the Jewish Agency and French benefactors, brings every 10th grade French Jewish child to Israel during the summer before they begin 11th grade.
Alan reminded us that the overarching mission of the Jewish Agency’s work is to create a strong Jewish identity and connection to Israel in young people the world over. Aliyah to Israel is an outcome of this work.
In the past, this Jewish Agency annual fair to showcase Israel programs, has attracted 1,500-2,000 people. 8,000 people were in attendance, which included those wishing to open files and start the consideration of making Aliyah.
[And speaking of French Aliyah, keep in mind that it has grown from 1,550 people in 2012, to 3,415 people in 2013, to over 7,200 people in 2014. Based on all indications, the number making Aliyah in 2015 from France is expected to be between 12,000 and 15,000 people with the likelihood of a total reaching 50,000 or more during the next five years.]
All of this is possible by the core allocations to the Jewish Agency from our federation system. And we should be proud.
The roller coaster ride of a dense two-day mission continued.
We had gone from the somber security briefing of the challenges facing the community, to the excitement of the Israel Program and Aliyah Fair to our next stop – at the Hyper Cacher supermarket, the site of the January 9th murders.
The supermarket is on the first floor of a residential building at the corner of two busy commercial streets. The store is closed with armed men standing just inside a police erected barrier. At the base of the barrier were hundreds of flowers, candles, signs and an Israeli flag.
It had the feeling we have been here before.
At the Dolphinarium discotheque. At Sabaros. At Mike’s Café. At the AMIA building.
A place where innocent Jewish lives were cut short by senseless hatred becomes holy when we stand together and bear witness.
In the cold, on the street, with cars, buses and people rushing by, we held a Yizkor service and said Kaddish.
And then proudly, we sang of hope. We sang Hatikvah.
At this point, everyone was immersed in the general outline of the situation, the sense of urgency and the drama.
Now we needed to settle in, get the more detailed analysis and begin to put into words the questions that were swirling in our heads all day.
The evening programing was extraordinary.
Beginning with a frightful and first-hand description of the state of radical Islam in France by journalist Mohamed Sifaoui, we then hosted a panel of four powerful speakers addressing the “State of French Jewry.” These are the leaders of the major Jewish institutions in France today, including:
- Joel Mergui, President of the Consistoire (a representative body for Jewish Congregations; overseas interests of synagogues, schools, charities, and the kosher-observant community).
- Yonathan Arfi, Vice President of CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France) – an umbrella organization for more than 60 Jewish organizations.
- Daniel Elalouf, President of the Executive Board and Treasurer of FSJU (Fond Social Juif Unifié) – an umbrella organization with over 300 affiliates across the country, active in five major fields of the French Jewish life: Education and Youth (school and youth movements); Jewish Culture (including media) and Community Centers; and Welfare Services. The AUJF (United Jewish Appeal for France) is part of the FSJU and raises funds for programs in France and in Israel.
- Sacha Reingewirtz, President, UEJF (Union des Étudiants Juifs de France). The Student Union has 15,000 members throughout France.
The quality of the presenters, the quality of the questions and the table top discussions were at the highest level.
One statement made by Joel Mergui, President of the Consistoire, kept going through my head all night – and that was “The Jewish community of France is past its peak. It will no longer be the same and, may, no longer be.”
Imagine being the president of your community’s federation and having to provide leadership in the face of those conditions?
I’m finishing this note about an hour before our Monday, 6 am wake up call.
Today is just as action-packed, with a meeting with French government officials, the US Ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, and the Israeli Ambassador to France, Yossi Gal.
I want to close with two last comments:
(a) The problems facing France are deep and systemic, going well beyond the spike in anti-Semitism. Aside from 20% unemployment among people ages 20-35, and the dramatic demographic changes taking place, there was one data point that was very alarming. In the past three years, 28% of the graduates of the top, elite schools in France (the Harvards, Standfords, Yales, Princetons equivalents) have left the country with no one expecting their return. What will this mean for the country’s ability to grapple with its challenges when the best of the best chose to leave?
(b) As I mentioned, the community is actively finding ways to protect itself, like with the parents volunteering to patrol their children’s schools. But there was one other example I thought both chilling and inspiring.
At the La Victoire Synagogue they have a tradition of monthly Shabbat dinners open to the public. People need to register by Thursday night to get a ticket. But that presents a problem as they must also take part in in some level of security screening before noon on Friday.
So a group of computer savvy young people from the community have taken this on and, a few weeks ago, by the use of researching social media sites, Google, Facebook posts, and the like, flagged a young couple that had requested tickets. When the couple came to the synagogue, the police were there and took them away for questioning, avoiding what could have been a tragic event.
Paris, The City of Love, is in pain.
B’shalom,
Richard Bernstein, UIA Chairman