Jewish, Muslim women bond in France over pastry

Elizabeth Bryant. Chronicle Foreign Service. 01/22/09
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/MNGF15CHB7.DTL&type=printable)

As Israel rained bombs on Gaza and anti-Semitic attacks hop-scotched across Europe this month, Hakima Milati worked the phones, inviting Jewish and Muslim women to visit the main mosque and synagogue in the eastern central city of Lyon.

It didn't take long to book the 60 places available for the event, which included a Kosher meal, said Milati, a Muslim. "I've had to turn people away."

Tension between Jews and Muslims are on the rise across Europe as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out once again across the continent. Nowhere is this more apparent than in France, home to Europe's largest communities of Muslims and Jews, at roughly 6 million and 600,000 people, respectively.

More than 55 anti-Semitic attacks have been registered in France since the Israeli offensive on Gaza began Dec 27. Synagogues have been firebombed and spray painted with graffiti, and Jews have been taunted and attacked on streets. In perhaps the most serious incident, a Jewish man was stabbed four times in a Paris suburb after attackers noticed he was wearing a Jewish symbol, according to the Interior Ministry. He suffered only minor wounds.

Other anti-Semitic attacks have occurred in Belgium and Denmark. The Paris-based European Jewish Congress has registered more than 100 anti-Semitic incidents in Britain. Jewish Europeans say the episodes bring back memories of the second Palestinian intifada that began in 2000. Nearly 750 acts or threats against Jews in France alone were recorded that year.

"It is unacceptable that Jews be targeted and that a wave of anti-Semitism is spreading again over Europe," said Serge Cwajgenbaum, the group's secretary-general. "No country in Western Europe is spared."

The violence represents perhaps the biggest challenge to date for Milati's Jewish-Muslim women's group, Peace Builders. The organization of some 500 women was founded in 2002 by French Jewish journalist Annie-Paule Derczansky after she covered a story on Israeli-Palestinian women's associations.

"What I realized was that women could still construct something together when it came to artistic and cultural things," said Derczansky. "It was on that basis that I told myself that I had to disconnect women in France from their differences over the Middle East and connect them with things that brought the two sides together."

Derczansky, who believes it's a mother's duty to instill a sense of tolerance in her children, began organizing debates over common heritage - many Jews and Muslims in France hail from North Africa. She organized movie nights featuring the 1991 film "Children Are Like Our Own Children, A Forgotten Resistance: The Mosque of Paris" that tells the story of how the mosque sheltered French resistance fighters and French Jews during World War II.

The women in the group also visit mosques and synagogues, learning about each others' faiths. More recently, they began meeting once a month in a suburban Paris restaurant to bake baklava and other pastries.

In September, Peace Builders opened a chapter in the port city of Marseille. The women sometimes bring their families to the events, and Derczansky hopes to organize school trips and sporting events in the near future.

"Obviously we won't change the world. But women who spend several hours making pastries and eating them together can't go home and start saying bad things about the other community," Derczansky said.

The only area off limits is politics.

"When it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, each of us has our position, but we respect each other," said Milati, co-president of the Lyon chapter.

Unlike some interfaith groups involving Jews and Muslims in France in recent years, Peace Builders appears not to be unraveling over Gaza. Just this month, Muslim members of the Jewish-Muslim Friendship Society reportedly resigned in protest of the silence of their Jewish counterparts over the Israeli bombing campaign.

Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, said relations with the country's Muslim umbrella organization (the French Council of the Muslim Faith) are good. But, he added, "much of the violence comes from youngsters who are not part of the organization, and within the organization there are elements that take radical positions."

Both Milati and Derczansky say there are many people in their respective communities who question the point of Peace Builders. Few devout Jews or Muslims are joining the group. And mistrust runs particularly deep among ethnic North Africans, they say, despite their common heritage.

"The thinking among many of the Jewish women is, 'the Arabs threw us out (of North Africa) and now they want to throw us out of Israel,' " said Derczansky. "But if people leave our debates seeing things differently, learning things, then that's very good."


E-mail Elizabeth Bryant at foreign@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/MNGF15CHB7.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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