OTHER VIEWS
Defeating Anti-Semitism
Paris
T
he start of the second
Palestinian intifada in late 2000
ignited the most extensive out-
break of anti-Semitic violence in France
since the Holocaust. The crimes have
been perpetrated almost entirely by the
beur — Arab immigrants. Marseille,
France's second-largest and oldest city,
was initially not exempt. Jewish schools
were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti
and swastikas were painted on Jewish
homes. Arsonists reduced Marseille's Or
Aviv Synagogue to ashes on March 31,
2002.
Yet, while in other French cities the
violence continues, in Marseille the
animus soon fizzled out. This is largely
because the city reacted with revulsion
to these crimes: Citywide protests
against anti-Semitism were immediate-
ly organized. Significandy, Muslims
participated in these protests. Islamic
leaders were also present for the burial
of the synagogue's charred Torah
scrolls and were photographed com-
forting Jewish religious leaders.
The success of these symbolic
actions is particularly impressive when
one considers Marseille's demograph-
ics: Fully a quarter of Marseille's popu-
lation is of North African origin;
Claire Berlinksi is a writer and novelist liv-
ing in Paris. A longer version of this article
appears in the current issue of Azure,
wvvw.azure.org.il
demographers predict that Marseille
will be the first city on the European
continent with an Islamic majority.
Moreover, its Jewish community is the
third largest in Europe. The most eth-
nically diverse city in France, then, has
paradoxically been the most successful
in containing ethnic tension.
At The Core
Perhaps most significant about
Marseille Esperance, however, is that it
challenges the core principles of the
French republican ideal and the historic
concept of what it means to be French.
France's model of immigration, the
so-called "republican" model, demands
that immigrants abandon their native
cultures and adopt a distinct set of
mental habits, values and shared his-
toric memories. These — and not
shared religion,
race or blood — are
0
held to be the essence of France, the
glue that binds French citizens together.
By contrast, the American model of
immigration rests upon significantly differ-
ent principles and traditions. The United
States emerged as a federation of smaller
states, and there is a looser and more prag-
matic relationship between citizens and the
center. Moreover, the U.S. enforces multi-
culturalism with affirmative action pro-
grams backed by the full weight of the law.
The French government, in contrast,
vigorously rejects this kind of cultural
separatism, which it terms "communi-
tarianism." The word connotes the
Animal Rights, Kosher Slaughter
New York City
any people expressed con-
cern about the standards
for humane treatment of
animals at a kosher slaughterhouse
after viewing a well-publicized video
of kosher slaughter at the
AgriProcessors plant in Iowa, which
was released by the animal-rights
organization PETA.
Any slaughterhouse, whether
kosher or non-kosher, is, by defini-
tion, a disconcerting, blood-filled and
gruesome place. Torah law, however,
is most insistent about not inflicting
needless pain on animals and in
emphasizing humane treatment of all
living creatures.
M
Rabbi Menachem Genack is rabbinic
administrator for the Kosher Division of
the Orthodox Union. His e-mail address
is oupr@ou.org
12/31
2004
32
Kosher slaughter, shechitah, involves
cutting the trachea and esophagus
with a sharp, flawless knife. At the
same time, the carotid arteries, which
are the primary supplier of blood to
the brain, are severed. The profound
loss of blood and the massive drop in
blood pressure render the animal
insensate almost immediately. Studies
done by Dr. H.H. Dukes at the
Cornell University School of
Veterinary Medicine indicate that the
animal is unconscious within seconds
of the incision.
After the shechitah at
AgriProcessors, an additional cut is
made in the carotid arteries to further
accelerate the bleeding. This is not
done for kashrut reasons, for after the
trachea and esophagus have been sev-
ered the shechitah is complete, but
rather for commercial reasons, to
avoid blood splash, which turns the
intrusion of unseemly religious
reason for Marseille's com-
or ethnic particularism into the
parative tranquility. For
public sphere. Yet communitari-
example, Marseille has bene-
anism is precisely the essence of
fited from vigorous police
Marseille Esperance.
work: President Jacques
Marseille Esperance is, in
Chirac's government has
effect, an end-run around the
taken aggressive measures to
government's anti-communitari-
combat anti-Semitism. There
an principles. Since French law
CLAIRE
is also the unique distribu-
forbids the recognition of ethnic-
BERLINSKI tion of immigrant neighbor-
ity, the city recognizes religions
hoods in Marseille. While in
Special
— ethnicity by proxy. Marseille
Commentary other French cities, the sub-
Esperance facilitates the emer-
urbs form menacing rings of
gence of personalities who represent
criminality and unemployment around
whole ethnic groups and who forge
the city, in Marseille, immigrant
links between their communities and
neighborhoods are distributed evenly
the rest of the city. By means of their
throughout the city; and young peo-
strong connection to the mayor's office,
ple, whatever their ethnic origin, con-
Muslim community leaders have been
gregate in the same place.
able effectively to promote an Islamic
But most significantly, Marseille
agenda. They have secured elaborate
demonstrates that by giving certain
slaughter facilities for the ritual animal
groups a formal means to express a rea-
sacrifice of Eid-el-Kebir and gravesites
sonable and moderate ethnic agenda,
for Muslims in the Aygalades Cemetery.
the violent and immoderate elements
In return, the mayor demands that
of that group may more readily be
Islamic leaders keep the extremists in
contained by the moderate ones, who
their community in check.
have been co-opted into the system.
Of course, Marseille is not some kind
End Of Era?
of pluralistic utopia. While there is less
Whatever community leaders and
anti-Semitic tension in Marseille than
politicians may say — and all will deny
in other French cities, there is tension
it; it is heresy to endorse communitari-
nonetheless. But in Marseille, unlike
anism in France — Marseille Esperance
other French cities, the worst of the
institutionalizes and strengthens corn.-
tension has been dampened. And in
munitarian politics; and by bringing
this, Marseille may serve as an impor-
religion to the forefront of the political
tant model for the rest of Europe.
sphere, directly contravenes France's
Marseille suggests, in other words,
official principle of secularism. And it
that the French republican ideal is
seems to be working.
dying. It was a noble experiment. But
To be sure, there is more than one
its days are over. II
meat a darker color. The
animal collapses. The USDA
carotid arteries are attached to
permits up to a 5 percent
initial failure rate.
the trachea; at AgriProcessors,
the trachea was excised to
facilitate the bleeding.
Standards Kept
In the overwhelming num-
At AgriProcessors and at
other plants it supervises, the
ber of cases, the animal is
Orthodox Union is commit-
insensate at that time.
ted
to maintaining the high-
However and inevitably, par-
RABBI
ticularly when it is considered MENACHEM est ritual standards of shechi-
tah without compromising
that 18,000 cattle were
GENACK
slaughtered during the seven-
the Halachah (Jewish law)
Special
one
bit. The O.U. continues
week period when the video
Commentary
was shot, there was a tiny per-
to vouch for the kashrut,
which was never compro-
centage of animals whose
carotid arteries were not completely
mised, of all the meat prepared by
severed so they were not completely
AgriProcessors.
As I indicated previously, images of
unconscious. Although this is very
infrequent, the removal of the trachea slaughter — especially selected
images in an abattoir — are jarring,
immediately after the shechitah has
particularly to the layman.
now been discontinued.
It should be kept in mind that in a
Statements by PETA that animals
were bellowing in pain after the
non-kosher plant, when the animal is
shechitah are an anatomical
killed by a shot with a captive bolt to
impossibility. After the animal's
the brain, it often has to be re-shot,
throat and larynx have been cut, it
sometimes up to six times, before the