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French Interior Minister Says He Loves the Jews

Bernard Cazeneuve tells Jewish community they have a friend in him

by
Stephanie Butnick
November 21, 2014
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on November 13, 2014. (THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images)
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on November 13, 2014. (THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Addressing attendees at an event in Paris sponsored by France’s Radio J, a Jewish station, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve explained effusively how much he loved the Jews. JTA reports that the politician expressed his support for France’s Jewish community, which is still reeling from the ongoing spate of anti-Semitic incidents triggered by the Israeli operation in Gaza this summer, particularly in Paris.

“Every time you feel the violence exercised against you, when you are afraid for your children, when you are worried about this rising violence, remind yourselves that the republic protects you and an interior minister who loves you and who is your friend,” Cazeneuve told the crowd.

Manuel Valls, France’s Prime Minister and Cazeneuve’s predecessor as Interior Minister, this summer denounced anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism amidst a particularly troubling and dangerous climate for the country’s Jewish population.

But while it’s nice to see French politicians so publicly supporting France’s Jewish community, is it enough to stop the anti-Jewish sentiment—and well-documented attacks on France’s Jews—that has the Jewish community leaving the country in droves?

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.