An Open Letter to French Interior Minister: "First Too Dangerous to Wear a Kippah, Now Speaking Hebrew Provokes Violence in Paris!"

December 11, 2019

Paris

“Only Israeli tourists in France must be warned to tell their children: ‘speak anything but Hebrew until we leave for home.’”

 

In an open letter to French Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted that “only last week, I sat in the National Assembly (Lower House of Parliament) applauding your speech that welcomed the vote accepting anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism... It took only a few days to encounter a new threat.”

The letter continued, “For French Jews, it is considered dangerous to wear a ‘kippa’ on their head in public... Now, even speaking Hebrew openly is considered as a provocation.”

 

An Israeli student in Paris dared to speak in Hebrew in a phone conversation with his father, while on the metro. He was then beaten to unconsciousness, reportedly by two “Africans.”

 

“Could this be a precedent for speakers of English, German, Chinese or Arabic... Hardly likely,” argued Samuels, adding, “I recall a Minister of Culture, Jacques Toubon, whom I asked for an example that would violate his ‘Law to protect the French language’... He jokingly responded, “walking down the Champs Elysées with the International Herald Tribune (now renamed The New York Times International Edition) under your arm.”

 

“But the status of Hebrew is, apparently, no joke. It is another vector for antisemitism... Only Israeli tourists in France must be warned to tell their children, ‘speak anything but Hebrew until we leave for home!’,” concluded Samuels.

For further information, contact Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com or visit www.wiesenthal-europe.com and join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

 

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