(Account by Rabbi Leonard Gordon, parent)
Dear Friends:
Bonjour! I have just returned from a week in Paris where I accompanied the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy French Class trip. One of the most memorable experiences of the week for me was having the maftir aliyah at the Synagogue at the rue de Victoire, the major synagogue center in Paris, founded in 1874 as a gift of the government. Standing in the front of the grand, two story, room, dominated by a giant silver menorah dedicated by the Rothschild family, I chanted the story of Rahab and the spies somewhat overwhelmed by the grandeur and history of the place. For a view of the synagogue, you can look at: http://www.lavictoire.org/pages/synagogue.html
Our Shabbat meals with French Jewish families were delightful, friendly and delicious combinations of European and North African Jewish cooking and hospitality. But our conversations reminded us to appreciate our own situation as American Jews. Jews who are observant and wear kippot at home, did not, as a rule, wear kippot on the street. Zemirot and birkat were chanted quietly (the windows of our host family’s homes were open due to the warm weather), and we were told that members of the traditional synagogue, including the rabbi, do not build sukkot in public spaces. Instead the community sukkah is located at the synagogue, and people come there to eat their holiday meals.
On Saturday night I gathered the group for Havdalah and we decided to sing the prayers in a closed private room at the Hotel rather than in the open courtyard (as we would have done in the States). The atmosphere is not one of fear but rather of discretion. Throughout Paris we found signs of the deportations of Jews during World War Two, and memories of France’s historic shift in foreign policy away from Israel and towards the Arab world are fresh. Together with the teachers from Barrack Hebrew Academy, I tried to impress upon the students the uniqueness of the American Jewish experience and the ways in which the Shoah is part of French history. The Holocaust did not only take place in Eastern Europe. Notably, we were told that during the war the French government protected the synagogue by claiming it as city property (in stark contrast to the lack of protection offered to France’s Jewish citizens). In the main synagogue there is a wall listing the names and units of Parisian Jews who died in World War I, and on the sanctuary wall is inscribed (in French) “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” seemingly a message to the community to integrate with their neighbors.
On a more positive note, it was also clear how Israel connects the world Jewish community. My daughter Ronya went into a salon for a Parisian haircut, and we noticed a mezuzah on the door. The owner (who did her hair) was French Algerian and had lived
in Israel. Despite a number of years of French study that Ronya and I share, we all conversed more effectively and comfortably in Hebrew! Remarkably, this experience was repeated several times. We were also struck by the way in which the melodies now current in Israel for the Friday night service are used in France’s Friday night service as we use them here.
Paris itself is beautiful and we had opportunities to see the sights and the art and to sample a wide range of French kosher restaurants on Rue Richer, in Le Marais and in more distant Jewish neighborhoods. French Jewish cooking mixes North African and European traditions (and when a menu says that cheese is being served with the meat, do not worry, it means a kind of sliced beef!). French kosher wine is also a cut above what we are used to.
We found the Jewish community warm and welcoming, though less comfortable with the English language than we had hoped. To truly enjoy a trip to Jewish Paris, work on your French first and then your Hebrew.
It was wonderful to learn about this world and it is great to be back home. Shavua tov. |
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