BATTLING THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM

IN MARCH 2014, I wrote in the Sons and Daughters’ newsletter:

We are now confronted with a new wave of French anti-Semitism that unites parts of the far right, the far left, anti-Israeli activists, and French youth of North African origin. The murder of Jewish children in Toulouse in 2012; the spread—in the streets and on the Internet—of anti-Jewish words and gestures; all this is creating a toxic atmosphere that reminds us, the Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France, of the dark years of our childhood, even if most of the French population is not affected by this infection and the public authorities are attempting to stamp it out. We have never been alarmist and we have always put our trust in the French Republic. Today, however, the new situation leaves us no choice but to sound the alarm.

Two months before this, we were forced into action by the Dieudonné controversy. Dieudonné is a popular French comedian who started out as an anti-racist political activist. Since the early part of this century, however, he has increasingly moved in far-right, anti-Semitic circles, and his shows and videos have made anti-Jewish sentiments popular and even chic among certain young people. On January 2, 2014, I learned that Dieudonné was starting a new tour in Nantes the following week, and this anti-Jewish revue was set to pass through the biggest cities in France. Instantly, I saw red: those performances would be held in the same cities where we had presented our exhibition on the 11,400 Jewish children deported from France. Dieudonné knew about us: Arno had denounced the menace that he represented as long ago as 2002.

On January 6, the minister of the interior, Manuel Valls, requested that the prefect in Nantes prohibit the show due to take place on January 9. The prefect in Nantes obliged, but Dieudonné immediately filed an appeal with the Nantes administrative court, which—at 2:30 p.m. on the day of the show—canceled the prefect’s decree, as it did not see any anti-Semitic malice in the comedian’s routine.

At 5:00 p.m., an emergency hearing at the Council of State overturned the verdict of the Nantes administrative court, and the show was—once again—prohibited. Other prefects and mayors would follow suit until Dieudonné finally surrendered and withdrew the incriminatory passages from his show.

During all of our protests against this anti-Semite, however, it has always been the same story: Jewish organizations have come out in force, and various politicians have spoken in support of us, but there has not been a word about it in the newspapers, not a single image on television.

France did not mobilize against this latest wave of anti-Semitism. In fact, in recent years, many French Jews have removed their children from public schools out of fear of seeing them beaten and humiliated for being Jewish. They no longer read the newspapers, whose biased views about Israel are a source of extreme irritation. They know that numerous websites are spreading anti-Jewish propaganda comparable to that of the 1930s, and they were shocked to discover that, during the Day of Anger protest on January 26, 2014, which brought together between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand marchers, the vilest anti-Jewish slogans were chanted. Hatred of Israel has become so commonplace that it has led to hatred of Jews becoming commonplace, too.

I am deeply concerned by the collusion of those on the right and the left who proclaim themselves anti-Zionist or anti-Jewish, and by the apathy of a population that has yet to truly accept the existence of this new wave of French anti-Semitism.

To combat it, we need support, not only from the French state but from the Jewish community, too. This is a long-term battle, and our central strategies are instruction, education, the training of teachers and other school staff, the surveillance and control of extremists and of so-called social networks that are, in reality, often antisocial.

The alternative is stark. Experience teaches us that, faced with a massive wave of anti-Semitism, there is no other outcome than mass exodus. If the people of France and Europe choose a future that is xenophobic and anti-Jewish, the Jews will continue to leave Europe. In 1939, there were six million Jews in the Americas, nine million in Europe, and two million in the rest of the world. Today, there are nearly six million Jews in Israel, seven million in the Americas, and only two million in Europe.