{"id":52360,"date":"2015-11-18T04:26:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-18T09:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=52360"},"modified":"2015-11-18T04:26:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-18T09:26:10","slug":"je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/","title":{"rendered":"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t particularly care for France. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some people think it’s a really bad time for me to make that declaration, given the recent tragedy of the coordinated terror attacks in Paris, whose wounds are still quite raw. But that’s specifically why I mention it now. <\/span><\/p>\n

So how is it, as everyone is posting \u201cJe suis Paris\u201d<\/i> and changing their profile pictures to le drapeau tricolore<\/i>, that I am so callous and cold-hearted?<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not, really. But I do have some serious issues with France. <\/span><\/p>\n

It became fashionable to make fun of the French in 2003, for their failure to support the military action in Iraq. It was at this time that pejorative \u201ccheese-eating surrender monkeys,\u201d coined by The Simpsons in 1995, became ubiquitous. At the same time, many took to calling french fries \u201cfreedom fries.\u201d (While \u201cfreedom fries\u201d is ridiculous, \u201cfrench fries\u201d is a misnomer. \u201cParis fries\u201d originated in Paris, Texas. Mistakenly thinking that the name must refer to Paris, France, many preferred the alliterative \u201cfrench fries,\u201d which ultimately stuck.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there’s the infamous 2001 comment by Daniel Bernard, then French ambassador to the United Kingdom. He said, \u201cAll the current troubles in the world are because of that [expletive deleted] little country Israel\u2026Why should the world be in danger of World War III because of those people?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

British MPs demanded that Bernard resign or be removed from office. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon\u2019s spokesman said that if France took no action, it would confirm their agreement with Bernard\u2019s statement. The ADL called upon the French Foreign Ministry to investigate. France\u2019s reply was basically, \u201cOh, that Bernard! You know him, he\u2019s such a character!\u201d The UK didn\u2019t want him anymore, so France transferred him to Algeria. (Did I mention that France and Israel are ostensibly allies? With friends like these\u2026.)<\/span><\/p>\n

France is also a hotbed of anti-Semitism. In a 2002 survey, 42% of French respondents said that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to their countries of residence and 42% said that Jews have too much power. In a 2011 survey, nearly 28% said that Jews have too much influence in France and nearly 26% said that Jews only care about \u201ctheir own kind.\u201d As of 2014, 70% of French Jews were worried about harassment because of anti-Semitism and 60% were worried about anti-Semitic violence. Is it any wonder that the number of Jews from France making aliyah has surged even beyond those from the US? (In 2014, 4,000 French Jews moved to Israel. That same period saw 3,762 olim from the US and Canada combined.)<\/span><\/p>\n

France is proud of the secular nature of their society. That\u2019s fine. But that extends to barring \u201costentatious\u201d religious symbols in public schools. That includes yarmulkes for Jewish boys and hijab for Muslim girls. I consider the latter ban far more offensive than the former because, like tzniyus for Jews, hijab is a religiously-informed standard of modesty. Imagine if a public school in the US insisted that Orthodox girls wear a uniform of shorts and tank tops with no accommodation for religious belief. That\u2019s what it\u2019s like making girls who wear hijab uncover their hair. Between 1994 and 2003, 100 girls were suspended or expelled from middle school or high school for wearing hijab. <\/span><\/p>\n

I could go on but that\u2019s not the point. The point is that, right or wrong, I have whatever issues I happen to have with France. Despite that, I don\u2019t have issues with the French. I have met a number of French people over the years and, by and large, they\u2019re very pleasant. They\u2019re certainly not unpleasant in any greater ratio than people of other nationalities whom I have met. It would never occur to me to blow them up because I happen to disagree with some of their country\u2019s policies. If I\u2019m strongly enough motivated by what I perceive to be an injustice, I can write an angry email. I can blog. I can write an op-ed. I can move there, become a citizen, and vote. You know, the way civilized people express dissent.<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened in Paris is a travesty. I would never say they deserved what they got. I wouldn\u2019t say that in Paris, in Madrid, in Tokyo or in Beirut. Nobody deserves to have innocents mowed down at a sporting event or in a restaurant. I\u2019m not Paris but I don\u2019t have to be to stand with them against ISIS.<\/span><\/p>\n

I get the whole terror thing. I live in New York City. I work in lower Manhattan and I was actually at the World Trade Center on 9\/11. I was trapped for hours in the financial district when the towers came down and later evacuated across the Manhattan Bridge. It was gratifying the way the entire country \u2013 even the world \u2013 rallied around us. We saw the worst of mankind that day, but also some of the best.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the World Series.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, New York\u2019s morale really could have used a win, but if Arizona had thrown the game as a misguided humanitarian gesture, it wouldn\u2019t have been honest. It would have done us no favors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of respect, I extend the same courtesy to France: I\u2019m going to be honest about the areas in which we disagree. But I will also put my antipathy aside for the time being and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them against a common existential threat. I will not say, \u201cWhat about X, Y and Z that happened in Israel?\u201d because no one deserves to have their tragedy turned into a competition. I will not suggest that French policies invited these attacks because blaming the victim is always wrong (and doing so justifies the terrorists). What I will do is give credit where credit is due: France has responded with swift and decisive action against ISIS, recognizing an act of war when they see one. This is something my own country hasn\u2019t always done. <\/span><\/p>\n

So, yeah, Je ne suis pas Paris<\/i>. I\u2019m not Paris. I never will be; there\u2019s just too much separating my priorities from theirs. But I don\u2019t have to be Paris to feel their pain, to mourn their dead, and to join with them in the fight against the real enemy.<\/span><\/p>\n

I shared an early draft of this article with some people and I received a surprising question in reply: \u201cWhy should we stand with France since they hate Israel?\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Because it\u2019s the right thing to do. If there\u2019s one thing that Israel can pride itself upon, it\u2019s that they always try to take the moral high road. Should we do anything less in support of Israel? And what message would it send if we didn\u2019t stand with them against ISIS? <\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t have to be Paris. We still have to be human.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t particularly care for France. Some people think it’s a really bad time for me to make that declaration, given the recent tragedy of the coordinated terror attacks in Paris, whose wounds are still quite raw. But that’s specifically why I mention it now. So how is it, as everyone is posting \u201cJe suis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":52361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\nJe Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don’t particularly care for France. Some people think it’s a really bad time for me to make that declaration, given the recent tragedy of the coordinated terror attacks in Paris, whose wounds are still quite raw. But that’s specifically why I mention it now. So how is it, as everyone is posting \u201cJe suis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-18T09:26:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"375\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/\",\"name\":\"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-18T09:26:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/50551cbad585e4b2a31b4b0227e06c1c\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png\",\"width\":675,\"height\":375},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/\",\"name\":\"OU Life\",\"description\":\"Everyday Jewish Living\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/50551cbad585e4b2a31b4b0227e06c1c\",\"name\":\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Jack-Abramowitz_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Jack-Abramowitz_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz\"},\"description\":\"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including The Tzniyus Book and The Taryag Companion. His latest work, The God Book, is available from OU Press as well as on Amazon.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/rabbi-jack-abramowitz\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life","og_description":"I don’t particularly care for France. Some people think it’s a really bad time for me to make that declaration, given the recent tragedy of the coordinated terror attacks in Paris, whose wounds are still quite raw. But that’s specifically why I mention it now. So how is it, as everyone is posting \u201cJe suis","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/","og_site_name":"OU Life","article_published_time":"2015-11-18T09:26:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":675,"height":375,"url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/","name":"Je Ne Suis Pas Paris (I\u2019m Not Paris) - OU Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png","datePublished":"2015-11-18T09:26:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/50551cbad585e4b2a31b4b0227e06c1c"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/je-ne-suis-pas-paris-im-not-paris\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/flag.png","width":675,"height":375},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/","name":"OU Life","description":"Everyday Jewish Living","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/50551cbad585e4b2a31b4b0227e06c1c","name":"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Jack-Abramowitz_avatar-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/files\/Rabbi-Jack-Abramowitz_avatar-96x96.jpg","caption":"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz"},"description":"Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including The Tzniyus Book and The Taryag Companion. His latest work, The God Book, is available from OU Press as well as on Amazon.","url":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/author\/rabbi-jack-abramowitz\/"}]}},"acf":[],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52362,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360\/revisions\/52362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}