A Jewish Perspective

European Jewry have lived an unusual tale from the beginning of the Roman Empire to present day Europe. The Roman Empire, in its need for slave labor, sent Jews from Israel to various parts of the world, up until that time included Asia, Africa, and Europe. In Europe, every country at one point in their history expelled Jews for one reason or another. Jews in general maintain strict communities, preventing the assimilation into regional cultures until the Medieval times. That's when Jews began attempting to become part of the fabric of the various countries and cultures, but did what they could to maintain the Jewish identity. In 1492, when Jews were evicted from Spain, many converted to Christianity, and in particular Catholicism to stay in Spain, while secretly maintaining their Jewish identity. To this day, there are Spaniards that still observe Passover and the Jewish holidays but are not certain why.

Germany was the last country to expel Jews in Europe; and that occurred in the mid 1930s. Some were fortunate enough to make it to America, some to South America, and even Asia and other parts of Europe. But when France was invaded in 1940, France was put into the unusual position of being forced by the Nazis to collect Jews for deportation to death camps. The French government that was put into place by the Nazis was the Vichy and they were responsible for the southern France while the Nazis controlled northern France. Some would say why not just tell the Nazis that they were not going to follow the requests of the Nazis. But instead the Vichy government arrested French citizens that were born Jewish without trepidation; they did it willingly. As a result, until recently, France has not acknowledged that it really had contributed to the genocide of European Jewry.

During our visit to Place des Vosges, we noticed various plaques remembering those Jews that where arrested in various parts of Paris. In all cases, they are designed to recognize the contribution of the French government and acknowledge how poor they acted when faced with the requests from the Nazis. A few of these plaques are shown in the attached pictures. Reading them brought nothing but tears to my eyes as I realized the depth of the genocide, and it's staggering to understand the extent of children from age of 2 months to adults at the age of 80 that were sent to death.

At the outset of the day we also walked past a modern orthodox Jewish synagogue. It was protected, 24 hours a day, by French Police. Antisemitism is fairly active here, though we have not been exposed to it. I'm not wearing a yarmulke, and I don't necessarily look Jewish. But from the Jewish Defense League's presence, it is indeed here. I am aware of the Anti-defamation League that is more of a legal route for dealing with antisemitism, but the JDL is more of a violent version that seeks to use force to reduce or eliminate antisemitism. It was comforting to me to see them in plain view and I support what they are doing, but I'm not sure I should condone everything they do.

Either way, it is still comforting to see that Jews are here, thriving, and generally accepted as part of the French citizenry.