For French Jews in Israel, terror victims' funeral is déjà vu

Thousands mourn, show solidarity while fearing terror attacks will continue against Jewish community back in France

By Renee Ghert-Zand

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13 January 2015, 6:28 pm

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Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.

Several thousand people, mainly young, French-speaking Jews, gathered in respectful silence midday Tuesday under a clear sky in Jerusalem for the funeral of the four victims of the terror attack last Friday on the HyperCacher supermarket in Paris.

Packing the area set aside for the ceremony at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery to overflowing, many of them resorted to holding up their phones high above the crowd, video cameras on, as their only way of catching a glimpse of the proceedings, including eulogies by bereaved family members and Israeli and French dignitaries.

Arriving by the busload from Jerusalem and all over Israel, some of them holding up signs with photos of Jewish victims of jihadist terror, they came in a show of solidarity. Some, however, feared this would not be the last funeral for Jewish victims of Islamist terror in France that they will witness.

“I came today to be in solidarity with my fellow French Jews. It’s the same reason I went to the funeral for the victims from Toulouse,” said Jerusalem resident Carole, referring to the burial at the same Jerusalem cemetery of the victims of a March 2012 shooting by an Islamist terrorist at a Jewish school in southwestern France.

Thousands of people attend the funeral ceremony of the four Jewish victims in the Paris Kosher Market terror attack at Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2015. (Photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Carole, who declined to give her last name, was impressed by the solidarity demonstrated by the millions of French citizens who marched against terrorism in Paris last Sunday, but doubted the long-term impact of the gesture.

“Sunday’s march was very emotional, but it was of the moment and may not last,” she said.

Carole, who moved to Israel from France 30 years ago, was also skeptical as to whether the French will see terror directed against Jews as something separate from terror against France and the West, and thus deserving of unique attention.

“There weren’t enough signs that said, ‘Je Suis Juif ” (I am Jewish) or ‘Jew Suis Musulman’ (I am Muslim). I saw mainly ‘Je Suis Charlie’ (I am Charlie) signs,” she said.

Toward the end of Tuesday’s funeral, the crowd applauded as Frances’s Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy Segolene Royal bestowed France’s Order of the Legion of Honor posthumously on the four victims, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen and Francois-Michel Saada.

A mourner at the Jerusalem funeral for four Jewish victims of the Paris terror attacks, on January 13, 2015. (photo credit: Ben Kelmer/Flash90) — Mourners at the Jerusalem funeral for four Jewish victims of the Paris terror attacks, on January 13, 2015. (photo credit: Ben Kelmer/Flash90)

Tanya Klein, who was born in France and immigrated to Israel four years ago from Luxembourg, was less enthusiastic. She, too, doubts that France will make fighting terror and protecting Jews a priority.

“The burden [of terror] is already in France, but it is not ready to see the war is going on. I doubt the country will change anything,” she said.

Hanna Besamoun, an 18-year-old student in Israel this year on a pre-immigration program, echoed the same concerns.

“The French government talks about protecting Jews but doesn’t actually do much,” she said as she sat on a bus with other young people from her program on their way to the funeral from Gush Etzion.

Bensamoun is certain that immigration to Israel is the only choice for her, especially since the increase in violent attacks against Jews in France over the past year or so.

In his remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the fear that Bensamoun and others feel so acutely, implying that the solution to the security worries of French Jews is for them to immigrate to Israel.

“Jews have a right to live in many countries and have full security, but I believe that they know in their heart, there is one country which is their historic home, a state which will always accept them with open arms. This is the hope of the entire Jewish people,” he said.

Mourners at the Jerusalem funeral for four Jewish victims of the Paris terror attacks, on January 13, 2015. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Royal, on the other hand, reassured the victims’ families and all those gathered of the French government’s commitment to root out anti-Semitism and to preserve and protect the Jewish community, which she called “a source of pride” for France.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in France. That is the message given by the millions who marched,” she said. “The messages ‘Je Suis Charlie’ and ‘Je Suis Juif’ resonated throughout the streets.”

Not all French Jews feel they can believe French leaders when they say that there is “no France without French Jews,” as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls recently said and Royal repeated at the funeral.

But it seems unlikely the large number of Jews flocking to immigration fairs in the wake of the HyperCacher attack will actually lead a mass exodus out of the country, currently home to the second largest Jewish Diaspora population.

Bensamoun said her parents and older brother have no immediate plans to leave France.

“Certainly, my parents are afraid of the Muslim terrorists who think they can do whatever they want, but at this point they are not planning to join me in Israel,” she said.

Reuven Rivlin speaking at the Jerusalem funeral for the four victims of the Paris terror attack, on January 13, 2015. (photo credit: Amit Shabi/POOL/Flash90)

President Reuven Rivlin acknowledged this reality in his eulogy. After addressing the grieving families and then calling on the world to fight “rabid anti-Semitic incitement,” he stressed his desire to see French Jews move to Israel by positive choice, rather than under duress.

“Much has been said since the murders, on the issue of the immigration to Israel of French Jewry. My dear brothers and sisters, Jewish citizens of France, you are welcome. Our land is your land, our home is your home, and we yearn to see you settle in Zion,” he said.

“However, returning to your ancestral home need not be due to distress, out of desperation, because of destruction, or in the throes of terror and fear. Terror has never kept us down, and we do not want terror to subdue you. The Land of Israel is the land of choice. We want you to choose Israel, because of a love for Israel.”

Rivlin promised the grieving families that Israel we will continue to fight for Jews’ right to live as Jews, wherever they may be. He said that Israel would fight for Jews’ right to keep their synagogues proudly open, and to teach their children Torah, a love for Israel, and responsibility to the world around them.

Mourners seen carrying one of the bodies for burial during the funeral ceremony of the four Jewish victims of the Paris kosher grocery attack that was held at Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem, on January 13, 2015. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

David Breakstone, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, said as the funeral ended that he was pleased to hear Rivlin give this message.

“His remarks show a real Zionist maturity. Instead of the negation of the Diaspora that we used to see, the president voiced expression to a more responsible relationship between Israel and the Diaspora, a relationship of mutual recognition and responsibility that didn’t always used to be there,” he said.