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22 Kislev 5763 - November 27, 2002 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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NEWS
Former French Ambassador Defames Religious French Jews
by Yated Ne'eman Staff

Eli Barnaby, former Israeli ambassador to France, who has just finished his term in office, has defamed orthodox Jews in an interview in Le Monde, saying: "[They are] like peripheral factions, living their Jewish religion as separatists." In France the term "separatist" has overtones of terrorism and political violence. Such a serious accusation feeds the incitement against the Jews in France.

Immediately after finishing his term as ambassador, Barnaby published a book, A Letter to the Jews in France, in which he accuses them of blind support for Israel, fostering fantasies about anything happening within Israel and subservience to its government. "This is a Zionism of despair. I call them to join a new Zionism, to less subservient ties."

Barnaby, a left-wing irreligious Jew, was completely cut off from the center of the Jewish community, of which the active majority is at the very least traditional and connected to Israel. His relations while in office were limited to the wealthy non- religious Jews. He says that he felt out of place during his visits in the religious communities in the villages and suburbs. "Any place I visited in France, I saw these types of Jews and heard them speak. It is a trend, which attracts Jews, especially the youth. Thirty years ago there were many Jews in the Zionist youth movements. Today only Beitar remains and the youths in the movement wear kippot even though its founder was an irreligious Jew. For most of the French Jews, Israel is Utopia, a fantastic delusion."

In his letter he expressed "concern for the digression to isolationism which threatens the Jewish community." The French papers were very pleased with this scoop and published choice sections from his book. In an interview Barnaby says, "As far as I am concerned, the religious communities are not in the center but in the extreme periphery, where extreme Judaism is developing in a separatist manner."

According to an opinion poll commissioned by the Jewish organization Fond Sociale Juive, the traditional Jews who go to orthodox shuls -- the "separatists" according to Barnaby -- represent 51 percent of the community. The chareidi Jews are 5 percent and the irreligious 29 percent. 42 percent said they keep kosher and 26 percent of the students learn in Jewish schools. The Fond Sociale Juive stressed that the return to Judaism does not "point to a retreat into separatism within Judaism." "The Jews are happy in France," says the president David Saada.

The opinion poll, which interviewed 1132 families, shows that French Jewry is distancing itself from the non-religious. Arik Cohen, who arranged the research, says that the Jewish community has been absorbed by the French society but feels concerned and disconcerted. The Ashkenazi Jews are disappearing. The Sephardic Jews make up 70 percent of the community and the Ashkenazi Jews 23 percent.

Part of the community has been lost despite the strengthening of Judaism. The rate of intermarriage is at 40 percent. Only 6 percent express the intention of making immediate aliya. Many Jews have family in Israel. On Sunday the French village in the suburb in Lan Malin, in the presence of the mayor, held a memorial ceremony for Alexander Ducan, originally from the village, who was killed in the Chevron ambush.

 

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