a frenchman or a jew? - new york times
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a frenchman or a jew?
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by fernanda eberstadt
published: february 29, 2004
at first, stora was gratified to see her children drawn unselfconsciously to their jewish identity. her son asked for a bar mitzvah; her daughter wore a star of david made of sequins to parties -- a gesture stora said she could not have imagined making in her own adolescence. but her gratification has faded. ''now,'' she said, ''my heart sinks when my children come home saying, 'mama, it's hard being a jew.' for them, it means a constant low-level barrage of hazing, blows. these days, my daughter hides her star of david under her shirt.'' hanna, the teenage daughter, explained: ''if i wear it, my friends jump on me: 'where do you think you're living? take that thing off!' at school, it's cool to be anti-feuj ''- feuj means jew in verlan, a popular street slang. ''kids say, 'this pen doesn't work; it's feuj.' in the cafeteria, it's 'why are you eating alone like a feuj?' it's just a way of kidding, but i find it hard to live with.'' stora said that when she complained to hanna's teacher about the anti-semitic remarks, the teacher was dismissive. ''of course it's because of sharon,'' stora recalled the teacher saying. ''i'm surprised your daughter takes it so personally.'' the worsening of the israeli-palestinian conflict has created painful rifts among french jewish intellectuals, aggravating the relations between those who feel dutybound to condemn israel's human rights abuses and those who maintain that support for israel is a prime obligation of diaspora jews, especially in a political climate rife with anti-zionism. even if they are critical of sharon's leadership, many french jews resist what the lawyer and activist serge klarsfeld has called the pressure to become ''political marranos'' -- jews called upon to renounce israel much as jews during the spanish inquisition were compelled to renounce their faith. in a widely condemned polemic that appeared on the french muslim web site oumma.com, tariq ramadan, a well-known swiss muslim philosopher, accused a number of leading french jewish intellectuals -- including the philosophers bernard-henri lévy and alain finkielkraut -- of having betrayed their commitment to the universal ideals of the french republic for a narrow sectarianism. (read: zionism.) what shocked french readers most about ramadan's essay was that he explicitly identified his targets as being jewish (including, notably, one who wasn't) -- an argumentative tactic that until recently stood in flagrant violation of the republican taboo against racial or ethnic profiling. most european intellectuals insist on a distinction between even the fiercest criticism of israel and an endorsement of anti-semitism. recently, however, this distinction has blurred. during demonstrations in may 2002 organized by france's mainstream antiracist organizations, protesters shouted anti-semitic slogans and tried to attack a couple of passers-by whom they believed to be jewish. veteran leftists like stora, who find themselves and their children confronting a new and very real anti-semitism, feel abandoned by their former comrades. ''for 15 years,'' she said, ''i was a militant in the communist revolutionary league. we fought for the rights of women, homosexuals, immigrants. in the 80's, we were at the forefront of the antiracist movement.'' in 1990, she noted, after the desecration of a jewish cemetery at carpentras -- presumed to have been the act of european-born neo-nazis -- 100,000 people marched in protest in paris, with the socialist president françois mitterand leading the way. yet today, when synagogues are firebombed, she complained, the left is silent because the anti-jewish violence is perceived as coming from radical muslims, whose cause the left has adopted as its own. with bitter humor, stora summed up the generational shift in the french left, from the anticlericalism of zola's time to today's sympathy for islamists: ''the father and grandfather devoured priests, and the sons demonstrate in favor of head scarves!'' the rise of anti-semitic incidents in france began with the outbreak of the second intifada, and ever since the violence has closely followed world events. on oct. 3, 2000, not long after ariel sharon's controversial visit to the temple mount, a synagogue in the parisian suburb of villepinte was set on fire. within weeks, four more synagogues, mainly around paris, were firebombed, and 19 more attacks on jewish schools, houses, businesses and other institutions were reported.
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fernanda eberstadt is a novelist who lives in france. her most recent book is ''the furies.''
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