Paris JCC Burnt Down
It’s too easy to feel safe and comfortable in the US sometimes. While nobody was hurt, thank God, this is a frightening reminder of some people’s desire to destroy our ability to join together as a community.
Frankly, I don’t think Sharon was so off base when he recommended to French Jews that they bolt — clearly they are not being protected adequately (have you seen an American JCC recently without serious security?).
“(have you seen an American JCC recently without serious security?)”
Depends on how you define “serious”. Ours consists of a decommissioned cop car in the parking lot. Once a week or so, someone moves it to a different space.
I dont know about the security of the JCC nearest to me, but the JCC compound of Santiago, Chile is gated and they run a metal detector underneath every car that is allowed in.
Was in Paris two Shabboses ago and my brother and I were the only Jews to step outside with kipot. Everyone else was either bareheaded or had hats, usually baseball hats, so really if you see someone with a baseball hat in Paris, you know they’re Jewish.
Ronen, I think your conclusion of ‘desire to destroy community unity’ is quite naive. Please, wake up and smell the coffee before it’s too late. Now’s the time to build a strong, independant Israel, not support it from the bleachers.
Also in Paris, a Jewish run soup kitchen was burned down early Sunday morning.
Hrm, two separate attacks, both involving fire and Jewish run Centres, and both in Paris. Coincidence, no?
800 000 Jews live in France. 800 000 Jews should up and move from France. I wonder what that would do to France’s economy… ?
Jason, its the same JCC. They’re just referring to it as a soup kitchen because it also functioned as one.
Hmmmm
unfortunately not even this horrible event will stop entirely too many Americans (way too many Jewish ones among them) from paying top dollar to visit that smelly arab-loving nazi-sympathizing place
Mike:
I guess if I had read this Ha’Aretz article, I’d have known that 😉
Two things: Josh, I hardly think I’m being naive– in fact, the whole point of my post was to encourage aliyah from France. You can support Israel from the diaspora (in fact, Israel needs this support–especially from American Jews), but it takes a lot of effort and focus. Going there and getting your hands dirty is a superior and gutsy choice.
One proud Jew: I was in Paris about 7 years ago, and I got to mingle with the Jewish community there. I always make it a point when I’m in Europe to see the current and often former Jewish life there– if nothing else, it reminds of us why we need to support and build Israel as a home for the Jewish people. But, really, there are other important and interesting things to see there, and I won’t advocate ignorance of other cultures and histories.
Ronen,
While there, I talked with the Frenchies about aliyah and how we ‘Americans’ think it’s dangerous in France. In general, they shrugged it off, I suppose the same way here in Israel we claim that the world media exagerates the pervasiveness of the terrorism. On the other hand, how many Jews died on 9/11, or is that ‘different’? So ‘Americans’ telling French Jews to pack up is dismissed as typical American arrogance. Just so you know.
I used to think is was really arrogant for regular Israelis to constantly nudge people to make aliya, but I now understand it to be simple need for acceptance. I on the other hand, approach it from a spiritual side and think aliyah is important for every Jew and now to ensure our progress and return to torah life. But if Jews in the diaspora continue to think ‘only someone else’ should make aliyah, then will only prevent further advancement.
You make some good points– and yes, there is nothing wrong with a spiritually motivated aliyah (although I would love to see a strong secular aliyah movement too– people who want to help the state of Israel progress by contributing to the economy and social growth of the country as opposed to building up hilltop settlements and embarassing so many people inside the green line with their extremism… too often under the guise of “torah life”).
9/11 and the French situation are very different…. 9/11 wasn’t directed at Jews per se. American Jews recommending aliyah to the French aren’t necessarily being arrogant–there’s a real sense that their quality of life has been suffering over the last few years, and I would say that we’re just trying to look out for their best interest (with the understanding that they are fully capable of doig the same).