“2000-year-old anti-Semitism”

When did the Jews arrive in France?

The oldest Jewish settlements date back to the 1st century AD, following the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem. Very quickly, the population’s attitude towards Jews turned to hatred. To understand today’s anti-Semitism, we must go back to that period, in other words, two thousand years ago. At that time, Jews were held responsible for the murder of Jesus and considered deicides. This hostility remained very strong until the Middle Ages: Jews were excluded from society, subjected to violence and were even expelled from the country on numerous occasions by the French monarchy.

What role did the France of the Enlightenment play for them?

At the time of the Revolution, the presence of the Jewish community sparked debates among intellectuals such as Voltaire, who was anti-religious, in the face of the Count of Clermont-Tonnerre and the Abbé Grégoire who defended the rights of the Jews. These discussions allowed the evolution of their status, since in 1791, they became full citizens, thanks to this same Abbé Grégoire, and were able to enjoy religious freedom in the private sphere.

This golden age did not last, however…

Indeed, in the 1860s and 1870s, hatred of Jews resurfaced and became racial, in a context of pseudoscientific experiments. This was the advent of anti-Semitism: Jews were perceived as a race. At the end of the 19th century, the Dreyfus affair marked a turning point: in a certain part of French opinion, the Jew was seen as a traitor, a bad Frenchman. Thus preparing the ground for Nazi ideology, half a century later…

What place did Jews occupy in society after the Shoah?

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the French realized to what extent hatred of Jews could lead to mass crimes. The shock was total. From then on, the Jews experienced a long period of happiness, during which they were able to assert their identity in the public space, intellectual and artistic circles. The images that emanated from Israel were positive: during the Six-Day War, Israel was seen as David defeating Goliath; the utopia of socialism in the Kibbutzim was viewed favorably…

But ?

Everything changed in the 1970s. Negationist voices emerged, such as those of Robert Faurisson and Jean-Marie Le Pen. And Israel’s image deteriorated during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), after the massacres in the Palestinian camps. Since then, the situation in the Middle East has been a problem that affects Jews in France. We are in a context where current events take precedence over what they have endured in the past.