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The views of a group of French Jews who are now living in London
There is nothing traumatic in crossing the English Channel. You just have to sit comfortably in your car, or in a Eurostar carriage, and wait for the journey to be completed. For some French Jews, however, crossing the Channel looked like crossing the Sea of Reeds, as some of us made this journey to flee from a situation they thought unbearable.
It very much depends on your on personal experience, as Jewish life in France is rich, thriving, exciting, but some of my fellow Jews felt threatened after the Paris attacks last year. Is it a reality, or is it more a general feeling that something is changing in France? I cannot tell.
I am not easily identified as a Jew in the streets, as I do not wear a kippah or any of the traditional outfit Orthodox Jews wear. I am a Liberal Jew. I am also a Liberal Rabbi, and this is the reason why I came to London in the first place. I studied at the Leo Baeck College in Finchley, a Progressive Rabbinical school, and life being as it is, I decided to settle down permanently in the UK.
I heard about the waves of French Jews moving to London, and I could see a growing number of French Jews in my own community, the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St Johns Wood. Sometimes, it feels very good to speak in French!
When I talk to them, they mention the rise of antisemitism as one of the reasons for their migration. But I suspect die-hard Zionists fleeing a supposedly declining Europe threatened by Islamism would rather go to Israel. I was also tempted to go to Israel, not to get away from Islamism – this tiny country is surrounded by Muslim states that are not always very friendly - but because I love being Jewish in a Jewish environment. Everything is Jewish: the food, the time, the weather, and even the chutzpah. But they do not need another Rabbi, so I happily serve my congregations in Europe.
I am also working in Lyon, a great city in central France, serving there a Liberal shul. This is very different: the weather, the language, even Judaism. French Jews are mostly Sephardim, unlike Askhenazi Brits. However, as an Ashkenazi myself, I do not feel too alien in the UK.
Again, I might be wrong, but I do not feel threatened when I go back to France. Of course, we were all appalled by the attacks in Paris, and before, in 2011, in Toulouse, targeting Jews, but not it is not only Jews who are under attack. Those wicked people who want to instil fear in our societies hate anyone but themselves. Muslims are targeted, white Europeans are targeted, and of course Jews.
As we get close to Pesach, I cannot help but think of all my fellow Jews and fellow countrymen who crossed the Channel to feel more secure. Pesach is about freedom, liberation, but above all, it is about inner liberation, about casting off the terror these people want us to feel.
I have started a programme to invite all French Jews who are still without a community to join me at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. I will hold an Erev 7th Day Pesach seder at the LJS on Thursday 28 April. We will read texts in three languages, sing in Hebrew, and eat our Matzah leftover. If you want to join, please write at rabbispa@ljs.org
To you all, French or British, or any other nations present in this great country, I wish you Chag Pesach Sameach
Rabbi Rene Pfertzel, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue