On Sunday, July 12th as were travelling from Paris to Antwerp, President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a statue honouring Captain Alfred Dreyfus and declared July 12th to be a national day to honour Dreyfus. It was 120 years earlier on July 12th 1906 that France’s Supreme Court exonerated Alfred Dreyfus from the trumped up charge of treason. Perhaps surprisingly, Dreyfus returned to the French army and fought for France during World War l. Dreyfus passed away in 1935.
Standing next to Macron was Charles Dreyfus, the 99 year old grandson of Alfred Dreyfus. Macron decried the resurgence of “the demons of anti-Semitism” that has plagued France past and present, a far cry from what was heard during the Dreyfus trial.
On the eve of the French revolution approximately 40,000 Jews lived in France. As antisemitism took a major turn for the worse in Eastern Europe towards the end of the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated to France (and millions to North America[1]). By the eve of World War II there were approximately 350,000 Jews living in France, the majority of them immigrants from Eastern Europe.
Amongst those was Rav Yitzchak Halevi Herzog (1888-1959), who would later become the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the State of Israel. His father, Rabbi Yoel Leib Herzog became the rabbi of the Agudas Hakehilos in Paris in 1908 when Yaacov was 21 years old. He studied at the Sorbonne before completing his Ph.D. at the University of London. His dissertation entitled The Dyeing of Purple in Ancient Israel focused on the makeup of techelet, the blue string of the tzizit as the method of how to make this was lost during the 7th century. While he did not merit to see it himself, it was his research that laid the foundation for the re-discovery of techelet enabling all who want to fully fulfill the mitzva of tzizit to do so.
At the tender age of 26 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland and in 1936 succeed Rav Abraham Isaac Hakohen Kuk as Chief Rabbi of Mandatory Palestine. His grandson, who carries his name, is the current President of the State of Israel.
Rav Herzog is sadly almost a forgotten figure. He lived in a different era, one tragically lost in which Torah scholars from all stripes of life could learn with and from each other. Mizrachi, Agudah, Zionist or non, secularly educated or vehemently opposed, Torah united them. Rav Herzog was not only a Talmudic prodigy but a bridge between the old and the new. He invested much energy into determining the relationship between halacha and a modern democratic State and we would do well to listen.
He argued, for example, that Jewish law requires that the State of Israel must guarantee full civil and religious rights to all, including protection of their (non-Jewish) places of worship. Halacha would have to determine how to apply such long dormant topics as criminal law, taxation, military service, police, foreign relations, constitutional law, labour relations, public health, etc. His two-volume work, The Main Institutions of Jewish Law – written in English – is a masterful presentation of and introduction to fundamental Jewish legal concepts. A perusal of the table of contents lists chapters such as conveyance, agency, partnership, bailees and bailments, surety, and discharge of contract. That someone could write a book like this as well as classic responsa – as his responsa Heichal Yitzchak are – is quite remarkable.
The list of rabbis who attended his Friday morning shiurim in Israel is a who’s who of the greatest Sages[2]. The inability to reproduce this helps explain why we still mourn on Tisha b’Av.
Like many European shuls Agudas Hakehilos is quite beautiful shul, designed by Hector Guimard, who designed the Paris Metro and other Art Nouveau projects. It is one of the few remaining shuls in the IV arrondissement of Paris, one of the main Jewish areas before the war. There is still a Jewish feel to the area with its shuls, schools, kosher restaurants and bookshops.
Another Rabbi who was in Paris – though not at the same time – was a young Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who fled from Germany to Paris in 1933. He also lived in the IV arrondissement of Paris and we visited the shul which he used to attend. Interestingly, while today it is a Chabad shteibel it was not when the future Rebbe davened there. Located maybe 500 metres from Agudash Hakehilos it is a much smaller shul. He fled France in 1941 escaping via Portugal (we will visit the train station from where he escaped on our upcoming trip to Portugal August 4- 12, details here)
World War II marked a low point for France as it did for pretty much the entire world. On May 10, 1940 the Nazis invaded France, Belgium, Luxemburg and The Netherlands. One month later France signed an armistice with Germany, and France was divided into two. The Nazis ym”s occupied the North and the collaborationist Vichy regime the South. In 1942 the Nazis ym”s occupied the South of France. This delay allowed many Jews to hide, get help from locals, and escape such that some 90% of the Jews in the south survived. Overall approximately 75% of French Jewry survived the war, including over 50% living in Northern France.
The largest wave of Jewish immigration to France was during the 1950’s-1970’s when over 200,000 Jews arrived from Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. Algerian Jews had been granted French citizenship in 1870 and when Algeria gained its independence in 1962 almost the entire community of 130,000 Jews moved to France. While many Moroccan and Tunisian Jews moved to Israel, many moved to France, (and to a lesser extent Canada).
France, with a population today of some 450,000 Jews hosts the third largest Jewish population in the world behind only Israel and the United States (Canada is fourth with about 400,000). Of that number approximately 75% live in the Paris area where we spent a week. Jewish life is vibrant and based on what we saw and heard there is little need to hide one’s Jewishness. Kippas, tzizit, kosher restaurants and shuls abound. The vast majority of Muslims – and Jews –are well integrated into French society and day to day there is very little antisemitism on display. What we hear about are the exceptions.
Just as France has Europe’s largest Jewish population, it has its largest Muslim population, estimated between 5-7 million people, some 8-10% of the total population. There is much Muslim-Jewish dialogue in France with many positive results. This is perhaps made easier by the fact that many of the Muslim immigrants share much in common with the Jewish population, having immigrated from the same countries.
Some 40-50% of Jewish students attend a day school, a far higher number than in North America. This can be attributed to a generally more traditionally minded community, the wide variety of options spanning the entire religious and Jewish spectrum and the much more affordable cost. Unlike in North America, France (and many other European countries) funds the Jewish Day School System. As long as the school follows the national secular curriculum the government funds all the “secular” costs of the school as well as operating costs, covering over 75% of the school’s budget. One of the local rabbis who spoke to us told us he pays approximately 1,300 Euros a month for the education of his four children. We did not ask if that was for 10 or 12 months but even assuming the latter that is some $18,000USD a year which does not even cover the tuition for one child in the vast majority of Jewish schools.
What is standard in France and pretty much all of Europe is armed guards protecting every major Jewish building. This has been a long standing practice and has nothing to do with October 7th. Oftentimes one must pass through metal detectors and show one’s passport to enter a Jewish building. While this may sound terrible it actually is rather re-assuring. North American Jewry would be wise to emulate these practices.
It is unfortunate that no major event anywhere in the world can take place without a massive security presence. But unlike throughout much of our history where persecution and pogroms against the Jewish people were State led, European governments today invest much money to protect Jews and their institutions. Despite the rise in antisemitism and our at times disappointment in government action or lack thereof, is there a Jew from the last 2,000 years who would not want to trade their security situation for ours? That is something to keep in mind.
[1] This migration was to large extent only possible due to the invention of the steamship which by the 1880’s had become the standard method of transport across the Atlantic, making travel much faster and much less expensive.
[2] These include Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, Professor Menachem Elon, Rav Yosef Shalom Elyasheev, Rav Shlomo Goren, Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer, Rav Avraham Shapiro, Rav Eliezer Waldenberg, Rav Bezalel Zolty and many more. For those not familiar with these names this is a remarkable list reflecting not only giants of Torah learning but also a vast range of ideological views.
