Posted on 04/09/2002 1:48:29 PM PDT by knighthawk
MARSEILLE The neatly clipped bushes along a winding lane of Les Caillols, a low-income neighborhood on the northern edge of this city, suggest a certain peace and order; then the buckled metal and ashes of the synagogue come into view, revealing the sudden violence.
The Or Aviv Synagogue, with its library, prayer hall and classrooms, was a modest, prefabricated compound. It was built by Jewish families from North Africa who came here in the 1960s, and on most Sabbaths it was full - that is, until March 31, when deep in the night it was set aflame.
"This surely happened because of the crisis in the Middle East," said Patrick Guedj, one of those who attended the synagogue, searching for meaning amid the debris and scorched shards of prayer books. Like other Jews here, he had lived in the nearby public housing project for years, mingling easily with its Arab majority.
"I never heard a bad word against Jews here," he said. "It's very painful. It's so hard to understand."
The ruined temple in Marseille is only one of a series of Jewish sites - synagogues, classrooms, school buses, a clubhouse - that have been attacked over the past week in almost a dozen French cities.
All over France, politicians and religious leaders have quickly and loudly condemned the violence. Many appear convinced that it is the product of Arab anger at Israel's military actions against Palestinians.
"This is not anti-Semitic violence, it's the Middle East conflict that's playing out here," said Charles Haddad, a Marseille lawyer and longtime president of the region's Jewish Council.
The attacks, the worst spate of anti-Jewish violence in France since World War II, have happened at night, and so far no one has been hurt. But they have deepened the concern that this could spell a more fundamental rupture in the traditionally peaceful relations between two groups that for generations have been identified with this country. Home to some 600,000 Jews and 5 million Muslims, many of them from North Africa, France now has more Jews and Muslims than any other country in Western Europe. Even as attacks continued and pro- and anti-Israeli demonstrators took to the streets in recent days, religious leaders at a number of mosques and synagogues have appealed for calm, pleading that the crisis in the Middle East not intrude further into France's cities.
"We must not be pulled into this," said Xavier Nataf, a close aide of the chief rabbi of Marseille. "The Middle East is one thing. But Marseille is another. It has its own special spirit." Marseille is different indeed, which is why the burned synagogue here has come as such a shock to the city's self-image. This ancient Mediterranean port, France's second-largest city, may long have struggled with the image of gangsterism, drugs and graft. But it has also thrived as a rich cultural blend, absorbing refugees, exiles and immigrants with little ethnic or religious strife.
Its people, its food and its worship smoothly adapted to earlier waves of Spanish, Italian, Armenian and West African newcomers. The shift became even bigger in the 1960s, when tens of thousands of Jews and Muslims poured in as French domination ended in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Often the port was just the gateway to France, but many people stayed here. North African couscous has become as common a dish as the local bouillabaisse. Algerian pop music is all over the radio.
One measure of the religious diversity of this city of 800,000 people - among them 80,000 Jews and 150,000 Muslims - is that the once overwhelming number of Christian churches has been joined by 35 synagogues and 51 small mosques, even though many are just modest, makeshift prayer halls.
Clement Yana, head of the Jewish Council of Provence, said that until the recent attacks, it was not a surprise that Jews and Muslims on the whole had gotten along in France.
"We've coexisted with mutual respect and without any worries," he said, not least because this city's mostly Sephardic Jews shared common origins with many Muslims from North Africa.
There is a broad consensus that Jews are well integrated.
Assimilation has proved more difficult, however, for the city's Muslim immigrants, among them poor rural workers who lack the skills to break out of the city's grim suburbs. But frustration is often deepest among French-born children of Arab immigrants who have few ties to North Africa but feel rejected by French society. In their search for an identity as well as a form of protest, some have been drawn by the political message of radical Islamic groups.
"It is true that we have some very excited young people in our community who may overreact," said Soheib Bencheikh, a clergyman and legal scholar who bears the title of grand mufti of Marseille. "We are still waiting for police reports," he said, adding that whatever the outcome, he was sure that the majority of Muslims in Marseille opposed the recent attacks.
Bencheikh was one of the first to condemn the violence and, with other Muslim leaders, immediately went to the burned synagogue to express solidarity. Their gesture was not unexpected. Muslim leaders here regularly meet their Jewish counterparts at an interfaith council created by the city government in 1990. The council, Marseilles Esperance, brings together Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders for monthly meetings to promote tolerance and mutual respect.
Some people credit the council with calming spirits at critical times here, such as during the aftermath of the firebombing at the Or Aviv Synagogue.
The council's members, including Muslims, accompanied the procession that carried the damaged Torah scrolls for burial in the Jewish section of the local cemetery.
"Or Aviv." "Light of Spring." Tragic that the "light" this spring came from an arson fire.
Well, are they attempting to embrace "French society?" And on whose terms?
Wow. Couldn’t have seen this coming. Who’d have thought that skills like straw-carpentry, camel herding, or dung masonry wouldn’t translate well in the french suburbs.
Well, idiots, you’ve got what you asked for. The muslim “holy war” will be in your back yard before you know it. I’m sure you’ll surrender in time though…
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
Uh .... the US of A?
Compound? Did someone say compound? Documentary Lady will be shocked.
Oh yeah, and it's not good to burn down synagogues (or take priests hostage in Christian churces) either.
Not hard to understand at all. Not only has France opened its borders to islamic thugs, the cheese-eating surrender monkeys have embraced anti-semitism for years. What's so hard to understand?
muslims bring peace and happiness wherever they go.
True, there are several million in the U.S., but who are they? A good chunk of them are ex-cons who learned about the “religion of peace” while in the slam. Of the rest, how many are like our good friend Sami al-arian from the University of Southern Florida or Louis Farrakahn or Elija Muhamed? How many danced on their rooftops in Jersey City as the airliners slammed into the World Trade Center?
Given, we aren’t exactly on the precipice of disaster, but that’s because we still have relatively few. Let’s not make the mistake that the idiots in europe did and try to mitigate the damage we’ve already done by passing out get in free cards to everyone with a dusky hue and a sneer on their face.
Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”
It's good to know somebody is speaking out against them.
BTW, look at the news. They're in the streets here right now.
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