A new exodus? The reality of being Jewish in Europe today
Introduction by leading foreign-affairs commentator Natalie Nougayrède
These are gruelling times for those in Europe who identify themselves as Jewish or have a Jewish background. For many, it is a time of fear and distress. Antisemitism is on the rise, fed by trends that threaten the fabric of European consciousness and values. Extreme right-wing movements are thriving – and they often carry elements of age-old European antisemitism. Europe has also been hit by the sectarianism and fanaticism that seeps out of the Middle East. Violent jihadism has struck in Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels and Toulouse. Violent radicalised youths only represent a tiny minority of Muslims, but they are dangerous and their numbers are growing in Europe. Their ideology of hatred finds fertile ground in pauperised suburbs and the racism that populist parties promote when they stigmatise immigrants.
It sometimes feels as if Europe is caught in a vicious circle where dismal economic figures and identity problems make communities ever more suspicious of one another. The lessons of Europe’s history should be drawn on constantly as an antidote to much of this. In 1989 I started travelling to Eastern Europe after the Berlin Wall fell, and some of the most moving experiences I had came from visiting the many places where Jews had disappeared because of the Nazi genocide: the ruins of villages in former shtetl lands; the empty, abandoned synagogues of Hungarian or Ukrainian cities; the neighbourhoods of Prague and Warsaw where Jewish artists, intellectuals and writers once brought a unique and essential ingredient to European culture.
There are 1.4 million Jews living in Europe today. They are an intimate part of the continent and what it should stand for, which is tolerance, and the acceptance that our continent has always been a mosaic of cultures and religions, each contributing to exchanges that make life more fulfilling. Some voices, among them Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu, have called on Europe’s Jews to emigrate to Israel for security. Fear can be understandable, but that kind of message is not what is needed. It would mean the negation of Europe’s diversity and very identity. There has been no better time to treasure that diversity and listen attentively to the myriad individual experiences that compose it.
Jean-François Bensahel, 51, Paris, president of the Israelite Reform Union at the synagogue in Paris where in October 1980 a bomb exploded, killing four people
more...
Definitely an interesting read.
= new reply since forum marked as read
