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Published on 27 October 2015
Eliette Abécassis : No one is more French than the Jews
By Elliette Abécassis, published in Yedioth Aharonot October 20, 2015
In my latest book, "Aliyah," the heroine Esther Vidal is torn apart by the doubts and questions that have been tormenting the Jews of France for years now. These questions have become a daily preoccupation for her. This is reflected in feelings of discomfort and anxiety when she has to explain to her children why they should not reveal their Jewishness in public spaces.
This is the situation in which we find ourselves stuck. Having to hide like the Marranos. Like Esther, my family is also originally from Spain. The Inquisition and the expulsion from Spain are part of our historical memory, as well as her ancestors’ past in Morocco, where the Jews lived as dhimmis - protected and humbled at the same time. But she knows that they found the country to be kind and that they had friendly, even warm, relations with the Muslims. "What happened?" she asks herself. "What is happening to us?"
The steps taken by the government following the attacks in January 2015 and the forceful and sincere words of Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who rightly said that “France without its Jews is not France,” can reassure the community and encourage it to stay in France. But how long can we live under the protection of the army and in a society that is becoming more and more hostile towards Jews?
And I do not just mean Islamists, but also the media’s anti-Israel obsession and the widespread anti-Zionism throughout the political spectrum - from the extreme Right to the extreme Left. Let us not be mistaken: every society reinvents its anti-Semitic worldview. In the Middle Ages the Jews killed Jesus. In the 1930s they were the inferior race. Today, the reason is Israel.
The rise of anti-Semitism, I think, is always a symbol of a deep social crisis. The current crisis we have known for a long time. The Republic’s Lost Zones, a book edited by Emmanuel Brenner that was published 15 years ago, points out all the elements that led to this crisis. He starts with the suburbs and spreads out to the whole society, and there was nothing done to put a stop to the attack on the French Republic’s values.
The government has given up on all fronts, especially on education. Recently the government cancelled Latin and Greek classes, which are the basis of our language and culture. Twenty years of compromise, concessions and even surrender, as the author Michel Houellebecq writes, led us into this disaster. I do not expect things to get better, and that is why I am distressed.
I am distressed because I love France. France is my country. I am a French writer, I appreciate the beauty of the language, I am nurtured by the French culture which has forged my being. France is also the land of the Jews. There are traces of Jewish presence in southern France beginning in 70 AD. In other words, no one is more French than the Jews... Read more.