 |
Jewish Travel Since 1993
Toll-free
877-466-2934. Phone 727-254-4373 |
|
|
Jewish Travel Since 1993
Toll-free
877-466-2934. Phone 727-254-4373 |
Susan Spano
August 29, 2004
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the L.A.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center,
was wearing a yarmulke when I met him in June at a hotel near the Louvre. I've
heard that Jewish American tourists coming to France have been counseled to wear
baseball caps instead of yarmulkes to avoid becoming targets of anti-Semitic
hate crimes. When I asked him about it, he raised his palms, smiled and said, "I
am what I am."
Cooper's reaction was one in a range of responses to my questions about what
American Jews think and feel about traveling to France, where anti-Semitism has
reemerged into the open since the second Palestinian intifada in September 2000.
Attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and cemeteries peaked in 2002, declined
somewhat in 2003, then soared again in the first half of this year, when there
were 135 incidents.
Every week, it seems, some new horror is reported in the French media, including
the firebombing of a Jewish school outside Paris in November and the desecration
late last month of Jewish tombstones in the Alsatian town of Saverne. On Aug.
22, a Jewish center in eastern Paris was set afire; the perpetrators drew
swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on the building.
The number of U.S. visitors to France has dropped by more than a million a year
since 2000, but there are no statistics on what percentages of that number are
due to anti-Semitism, fear of terrorism in general, resentment about French
opposition to the war in Iraq or the weakening buying power of the dollar in
Europe.
Travel experts have their own opinions.
"Although I love France and have traveled there many times, I am sad to
report that travel to France by Jewish people has declined," said Sophia Kulich,
a consultant for Westport, Conn.-based E&M Travel, which specializes in
Jewish-interest trips. "We booked only a few people there this year. I do not
believe it is due to terrorism or the exchange rate, since we send many people
to Italy, the U.K., Spain and Portugal."
But Jo Goldenberg, French owner of a cherished deli in the old Jewish quarter of
Paris on the Rue des Rosiers, scene of a 1982 bombing, thinks the anti-Semitism
problem in France has been exaggerated. "There are tourists here anyway,"
Goldenberg said.
Rachel Kaplan, president of Medford, Mass.-based European Jewish Tours, reported
that one client wanted to make sure the cars used for getting around Paris
weren't marked with the company name.
"But the main deterrent for coming to France is the discrepancy between the
dollar and the euro," she said in a phone interview. "The whole anti-Semitism
thing has been blown out of proportion. People in America don't understand the
context. The problems have occurred in places where tourists wouldn't go."
Violence against Jews and synagogues has occurred chiefly in the suburbs of
major cities such as Lyon, Marseille and Paris, where young Muslim immigrants
from North Africa — poor, socially disenfranchised, increasingly radicalized and
themselves the targets of racism in France — are concentrated.
France is home to about 500,000 Jews (about the same as in all of L.A.) and 6
million Muslims, the largest population in Europe. Tension between these groups
is unlikely to endanger the average Jewish American traveler, who wants to see
central Paris — the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre — not the tough suburbs.
Nevertheless, the upsurge in hate crimes against Jewish targets in France and
other European countries prompted the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which monitors
neo-Nazi activity, to issue an unprecedented travel advisory in April 2002,
warning that Jewish visitors to France and Belgium should exercise caution. The
center's Cooper told me the advisory was partly aimed at pressuring the French
government into taking more decisive action against the perpetrators of
anti-Jewish hate crimes.
Since then, the center has seen increased diligence on the part of the
government to bring those responsible to justice, intensified policing of
potential targets and a heightened effort to educate the public about
anti-Semitism and racism in general. By the spring of 2003, the advisory for
France was lifted (though the one for Belgium remains in effect, and another has
been issued for Greece).
Anti-Semitism in France is a profoundly complex and sensitive subject, entangled
with historical events, such as the Vichy government's deportation of Jews to
Nazi death camps during World War II.
The question for Jewish travelers is, how will being in France make you feel?
Shelley Gazin, an L.A. photographer working on an exhibition and book about
Jewish Paris, said she felt no fear on a recent visit to France, though the
emotional issues were deep. "The history [of Jews in Paris] permeated my being,"
she said.
A Jewish friend in New York who adores Paris said that visiting the city
prompted a moral struggle. Another friend said only unsophisticated tourists
would quail at the prospect of visiting France.
Everyone's answer will be different. It's a matter of listening to your head and
heart, then weighing potential emotional and psychological discomfort against
the indisputable pleasures of France, still the world's most popular travel
destination.
Susan Spano also writes "Postcards From
Paris," which can be read at
http://www.latimes.com/susanspano . You may e-mail her at postcards@latimes.com.
She cannot respond individually.
Toll-free
877-466-2934. Phone 727-254-4373
email:
info@JewishTravelAgency.com
www.JewishTravelAgency.com
EMCO Travel LLC, DBA Jewish Travel
Agency is registered with State of Florida as Seller of Travel Registration No.
ST36902
California Travel Seller # 2079011-40
Privacy statement