Rabbi's Message

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REFLECTIONS FROM RABBI SEVERINE  

We are all faced with difficult choices on the journey homeward. It is difficult to measure the impact of exile. The vast majority rises to the challenge, toughing it out, braving hardship, looking to find an easy passage and resume life as normal. They bury their anguish. During World War II, my father and his family where chased by German soldiers from France . Nearly two decades later, prompted by anti-Jewish riots, my mother left Morocco with her eight siblings in tow for France . Her aunts, uncles, and cousins chose Israel . Later, her brothers and sister would depart France for Israel as well. My generation lives an infinitely easier life removed from earlier times. Perhaps this is why, in part that today we have anniversaries to keep alive and remind us of the importance of these historical struggles.

Jews have been hailed as “the people of revelation”, while the French have been called “the people of revolution.” Although France and Israel may seem miles apart, they have something in common; they still live in the shadow of the Shoah (Holocaust).  After World War II , France was rebuilt, Israel was reborn. Leaders emerged from those orphaned by Nazism and Fascism. This month of May marks the tale of two tributes: the 60th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel in May 1948 and the 40th anniversary of the French Student Revolution of May 1968. Both events are central to each country’s identity. In France , the Student Uprising of 1968 is ranked as more important than the end of the Cold War or France ’s agonizing conflict in Algeria . The most important and popular student leader, and the author of the main manifesto of the uprising was Daniel Cohn-Bendit. His parents were Holocaust survivors. When Cohn-Bendit was deported from France for his role in the uprising, thousands of students flooded into the streets chanting, “We are all German Jews!” An estimated 10 million workers even joined forces with the students to create what has been trumpeted as the “greatest movement of social protest in Modern France.” According to the Agence France Presse “together, they ground the country to a halt, nearly bringing down the government.”

For France , May 1968 commemorates a country that ceased to function. In Israel , May 1948 celebrates a nation that had just begun to live again. Israel ’s creation is an astonishing achievement. A country confidently built from the ground up by courageous pioneers and dreamers. Countless books and films have been devoted to these awe-inspiring events. They say that such years are unrepeatable. As organizers prepare to launch crowd-pleasing celebrations on both sides of the Mediterranean , it is clear to me that both of these historical moments are united by high hopes and idealism. But in the case of France , this idealism is now only lived through nostalgia, whereas in Israel , this heroic idealism is paid for with the blood, sweat, and tears of everyday Israelis who have remained faithful to the past and fearless about our future in an often-hostile Middle East .

B’Shalom,

Rabbi Séverine Haziza-Sokol