'Never since the Shoah has the Jewish community of France felt so isolated' - Opinion

With some 1,040 antisemitic acts recorded in one month, we are taken back to the dark hours of the pre-war period. I will not impose on you the list of these acts which create a climate of insecurity and, for many, of fear. If there has not yet been a death, we all know that these movements can easily turn towards tragedy. What are we doing to avoid the worst?

On April 11, 2002, I wrote an article in the newspaper Le Monde: "Not to name antisemitism is to accept it." It was more than twenty years ago. Antisemitism was on the rise. The public authorities of the time did not want to accept the idea that, yes, there was a new antisemitism, increasingly violent, different from that conveyed by the traditional right; an antisemitism linked to the Middle East conflict and imported into our suburbs, anchored in our cities, encouraged, even incited, by Islamist radicals, while an extreme left at best turned a blind eye and at worst justified it, when they did not participate.

From bloody crimes to terrorist assassinations, the conscience of those in power has been awakened, and since Nicolas Sarkozy, the State has taken this threat very seriously, not only recognizing antisemitic acts for what they are, but by fighting sincerely against any attack on human dignity and physical integrity. More recently, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, insisted on assimilating "anti-Zionism" and "antisemitism" – in accordance with European provisions – as it is true that under the cover of anti-Zionism the worst antisemitism is expressed, especially among the most fragile minds.

The big difference between 2002 and 2023 is that antisemitism has been recognized and named. And I admit to wondering today about the very meaning of my twenty-year-old column. By calling antisemitism for what it is, I naively thought that all measures would be taken to nip the emerging phenomenon in the bud. I also imagined that in the name of the values ​​of the Republic, everyone would rise as one man in a movement of unreserved condemnation.

"Selective mutism"

However, if the public authorities and, it must also be said, most of the media have taken the measure of the danger, where are the others – the thinkers (are there any still?), the NGOs who qualify humanitarians, the standard bearers of the republican motto, and more broadly national solidarity? Everything happens as if targeting a part of the population, the least liked, the easiest to attack – "Come on, it's only the Jews" – had no impact on what the nation is – its whole, its unity, its future. In fact, by giving in in the name of "no waves" and to achieve inglorious electoral objectives, it is the foundation of our society that we are weakening.

Since October 7, most French Jews have felt abandoned in a form of physical and psychological insecurity. Not since the Shoah has the Jewish community in France felt so isolated. Forty French Jews were murdered in atrocious conditions during the barbaric Hamas attack. With each count, we heard the clicking of the count, but no compassion or emotion. Who were these forty French people? What was their life like? Were they related? We know nothing about them because we don't want to know anything, neither their names, nor their ages, nor their lives, nor their faces. 

Nine French Jewish hostages are still held by Hamas. I have no doubt that the authorities are doing everything in their power to free them, but where are the municipalities? Large portraits on official buildings? Where are the intellectuals so quick to take up their pen? NGOs, about whom we have heard a lot since the bombings of Gaza, but little or nothing after the Hamas massacres? Associations that claim to be humanitarian? The humanist left? Guilty anesthesia. Selective mutism. A two-speed indignation.

"I call for a start" 

When I was working on a campaign for peace in the Middle East, the Palestinians and Israelis I brought together did not accept the idea that a life was worth a life. It was a slow journey, through countless discussions and work sessions, for them to finally admit this fundamental principle. A few months later, in 2006, eighty Israelis and Palestinians stood up holding hands, overwhelmed by the hope and emotion aroused by this campaign for peace that we had developed and presented on the edge of the Dead Sea, on the Jordanian side, in front of 1,200 Arab officials from the region, led by prime ministers, emirs, and presidents.

This initiative is no longer; it was shattered by the Hamas election. And today, in light of the lack of reactions, I fear that we will have to start all over again: for many, a life is not worth a life, and those of the Jews, at least not much. I am one of those who believe that a life is worth a life – basically, without the nuance of a "but…". I feel the drama and join in the emotion when the bombings cause civilian casualties. It touches on the universal, the human. The Palestinian cause, the cause of peace, is much better than the barbarity of Hamas, much better than the surge of anti-Jewish hatred deployed throughout the world and very close to us.

And that's why I'm calling for a start. My 2002 column left the final word to Jean-Paul Sartre, who, in his essay Reflections on the Jewish Question (Gallimard, 1946), concluded: "Antisemitism is not a Jewish problem; it is our problem."

Men and women of goodwill, I implore you to face this danger head-on by ensuring that any antisemitic act is made unacceptable – at school, in the street, in businesses, administrations, and families. Stand up, march as we marched together to defend what Charlie stood for and show that Jews are not alone. I am not asking you to adhere to Israeli policy but to unequivocally condemn the abuses of Hamas as you know how to do for the bombings of Gaza, taking care to protect yourself from any confusion. Faced with obscurantism and this nauseating pandemic that is spreading, I ask you to prolong the spirit of the Enlightenment, of which the values of our Republic are the heirs. Let's solve our Jewish problem, or rather, as Sartre said, solve your Jewish problem.

Maurice Lévy is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Publicis Groupe and Chairman of the International Board of Governors of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.