By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
CHULA VISTA, California — As Jews are observing the Passover holiday this coming weekend, recalling a time when our ancestors left Egypt, the land of their oppression, we are witnessing a new kind of Exodus taking place today:
Jews are leaving France in record numbers amidst the rising anti-Semitic attacks that have been taking place there over the last decade or longer.
- In 2014, over 7231 Jews left for Israel.
- In 2015, over 8,000 French Jews left for Israel.
- In 2016, another wave of 7900 French Jews left France for Israel.
- In 2017, 5000 Jews left to live in Israel.
Many of the French Jews have moved to the United States. A growing French community is expanding in New York City, where many of the new immigrants have American cousins.
In France (and to a lesser extent in other countries) synagogues are routinely vandalized and desecrated, as are Jewish cemeteries. Over ninety tombstones have been desecrated with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans. Jews are frightened to walk alone at night or during the day. Rabbis encouraged Jews not to wear their yarmulkes, lest they make themselves a target for the ISIS and jihadi mobs. There are fascists who have threatened the Jewish communities as well.
France has become a terrifying place for Jews.
As Steve Eisenberg put it, “They’re here [in the United States] because they just can’t breathe as Jews in France. There’s no Jewish future there. You can’t walk in Paris wearing a yarmulke. You’re taking your life in your hands.”
The various attacks that have occurred there in recent years have frightened France’s 550,000 Jews—and for good reason. Over 40% of the hate crimes in France are anti-Semitic. In just 2017-2018 alone there were 541 anti-Semitic attacks, while anti-Muslim attacks numbered just 100, the lowest since 2010.
Meanwhile, there were 1063 anti-Christian attacks, a slight increase over the previous year. These attacks are under-reported although they make up the largest share of hate crimes.
One of my former congregants, Valorie Hope, used to live in France, where she worked as a docent at some French museums. Back in 1997, she told me that women in France wear a hijab whenever taking the subway that goes through a Muslim community, and then she removes it once they are in a safer part of town.
Imagine living with that kind of fear on a daily basis. Imagine wearing a yarmulke in Paris today.
Unfortunately, France is hardly alone when it comes to the problem of anti-Semitism. Britain also has experienced a sharp rise in anti-Semitism. Some British Jews have expressed, “We are seeing British Jews increasingly talking about leaving and also seeing signs of people leaving, not just to Israel, but also to the United States and Canada — and Australia is a destination as well,” said Gideon Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). “Some of our volunteers from the coalition have realized so many incidents through their work with us they have left and have moved with their families.” 1]
Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has embraced several unsavory people who have promoted anti-Semitic ideas; he considers radical Islamic organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah “his friends” and has failed to object to anti-Semitic banners and posters that “dominate” the London Quds Day rallies. British Jews are feeling increasingly insecure and its small 300,000 Jewish population is considering alternative plans.[2]
Jews have always been the conscience and ethical pulse of a nation.
Both France and Great Britain can ill-afford to lose their progressive Jewish element.
Pesach reminds us that as a nation we have gone from rags to riches over the ages, but just as we have gone from rags to riches, we could just as easily lose everything we now presently enjoy when our enemies’ scapegoat us, evict us and seek to destroy us because we are Jews.
The Passover Haggadah says, “In every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy Blessed One, rescues us from their hands.”
Consider our history, as provided by Aish HaTorah:
| 1430 BCE | Slavery in Egypt. (Passover) |
| 356 BCE | Haman attempts genocide of the Jews. (Purim) |
| 138 BCE | Greek government outlaws the practice of Judaism in Israel. (Chanukah) |
| 486 CE | Monks and mobs burn synagogue, dig up a Jewish cemetery, and burn bones. |
| 624 | Mohammed watches as 600 Jews are decapitated in Medina in one day. |
| 640 | Jews expelled from Arabia. |
| 1096 | First Crusade: Thousands of Jews tortured and massacred. |
| 1146 | Second Crusade: Thousands of Jews, including women and babies, are butchered across Europe. |
| 1200s | Jews ― blamed for causing the Black Plague ― are murdered in Frankfurt, Speyer, Koblenz, Mainz, Cracow, Alsace, Bonn, and other cities. |
| 1290 | Jews expelled from England. |
| 1306 | Jews expelled from France. |
| 1349 | Jews expelled from Hungary. |
| 1391 | Spain: Seville, Majorca, Barcelona – tens of thousands killed. |
| 1394 | Second expulsion from France. |
| 1400’s | Jews accused of murdering Christian children and baking matzah with the blood. |
| 1421 | Jews expelled from Austria. |
| 1492 | Jews expelled from Spain; Inquisition. |
| 1496 | Jews expelled from Portugal |
| 1500s | Marranos are burned in Mexico, Portugal, Peru, and Spain. |
| 1553 | The Talmud is burned in Italy. |
| 1648-66 | Cossacks, Poles, Russians, and Swedes massacre Jews. |
| 1744 | Jews expelled from Bohemia and Moravia. |
| 1818 | Pogroms in Yemen. |
| 1840 | Blood libel in Damascus. |
| 1862 | General Ulysses S. Grant expels Jews from Tennessee. |
| 1882 | Pogroms in Russia. |
| 1930s-40s | Official Canadian reply to most Jewish pleas for refuge: “Unfortunately, though we greatly sympathize with your circumstance, at present you cannot be admitted. Please try some other country.” |
| 1939-45 | Six million Jews are annihilated across Europe. Babies serve as target practice, women are human guinea pigs for doctors and scientists, beards are torn from men’s faces. |
| 1948-67 | Arab nations launch attacks to annihilate the States of Israel. Fearing for their lives, Jews flee Algeria, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Egypt. |
| 1917-91 | The study of Hebrew is a “crime against the state” in the Soviet Union.[3] |
We could easily add the anti-Semitic attacks that we have experienced in the 21st century as well. The same drama seems fated to occur again and again . . .
As you can see, it is an old story. From a Hegelian perspective, history repeats itself in familiar cycles. The actors will change, the personalities, and the script will still remain the same.
Sholem Aleichem has often been considered the “Jewish version of Mark Twain,” and in one of his lesser-known plays, It’s Hard to Be a Jew, he portrays a Jew and a Gentile exchanging identities, so that each one could know what it is like to walk in the shoes of another. The play has its humorous aspects, and yet, one cannot help but feel the tragedy that affected the average Russian Jew. After the gentile named Ivanov, experiences what the Jew has gone through, he says, “It is hard to be a Jew.”
As Jews, we have been blessed with prosperity and success in the Western world, but now we must prepare ourselves for dealing with the dark side of Western culture—much as we see today in France and Britain.
Throughout these arduous times where politics and ancient hatreds are experiencing a comeback, we must stand together as a people and for each other—regardless of our political or religious persuasion. Our love of God, Torah, and each other must continue to be the glue that unites and perseveres our people.
Why? Because it is difficult to be a Jew. If the Jew stood for nothing, the world would have ignored us long ago. It is because we are God’s witness to a skeptical world, we must be prepared to walk our talk and live in accordance with our faith’s highest ideals.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/17/uk/uk-anti-semitism-intl/index.html
[2] Editorial Board (12 August 2015). “The key questions Jeremy Corbyn must answer”. The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 8 December 2017. Hirsh, David (2017). Contemporary Left Antisemitism (1 ed.). Routledge.
[3] https://www.aish.com/h/pes/h/Vi-He-She-Amda.html
Rabbi Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista. He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com