France: The palpable sense of fear

Tuvia Book @ Times of Israel

French Chief Rabbi Chaim Korsia at a meeting with French and French speaking Jews in New York this week issued an unusual invitation:  “Come and see us in Paris, and tell your friends to come, things are better than most people think.”   

Now, with the greatest respect to the good Rabbi, the term “Orwellian” springs to mind. Clearly, he has a job to do, but his idea of “better than most people think” is certainly interesting.

If most people think that that there are armed troops openly patrolling the streets and that Jewish institutions are guarded by a phalanx of armed soldiers, and that Jews are afraid to walk in public displaying obvious signs of Judaism, such as kippot or Jewish themed Jewelry, and that synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish institutions are no–go zones surrounded by armed guards, soldiers and concrete blocks, and that everywhere Jewish children go; to their Jewish schools, to their youth movement meetings, to synagogue services they have to be escorted in groups with guards, and that Jews do not even put Mezuzot on their doors for fear of reprisal, they would be correct.

So what does he mean when he says that it is better than that?   I’m trying to figure it out. More.