The January 9 Hyper Cacher massacre was far from the first time Jews have been attacked in France solely for being Jews. A partial list of such attacks in the past few years alone would include the kidnapping, torture (over a period of three weeks), and eventual murder of French Jewish teenager Ilan Halimi by a gang of Muslims; the beating – in the middle of Paris – of three teenagers wearing yarmulkes; the firebombing of a synagogue in downtown Saint-Denis; an arson attack against a kosher warehouse in Paris; a firebomb attack on a Jewish school in Marseille; and the murder at a Jewish school in Toulouse of a rabbi, his two young sons, and a young girl by a Muslim gunman on a motorcycle.
There was no major – or even minor – outcry from French leaders or everyday French citizens over any of those atrocities. Some quickly forgotten words of sympathy, yes, but nothing more – certainly no public outpouring of anger and grief like we saw in Paris earlier this month. I suspect the Hyper Cacher killings would have elicited the same indifference had it not been for the fact that they occurred on the heels of the massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satiric magazine.
So much for liberty, equality, fraternity.
It has long been painfully evident to all but the most obtuse that the lofty ideals enlightened nations pride themselves on fall away when it comes to Jews. But what are we as Jews to learn from this?
(To be continued)