Sadly this is a trend that won’t be reversing itself any time soon.
Growing up as a Jew in Paris.
For security the writer of this article wishes to remain anonymous.
I grew up in suburban Paris. Our suburb, Asnieres, was divided between a relatively poor Northern side, with a mix of people – Arabic, African, Chinese, Portuguese and French – lots of housing commissions, and a wealthier Southern side with a majority of French Catholics and pretty houses. I lived on the Northern side for 12 years with my family before moving to the Southern side.
In the late 70s, the communities in the Northern side lived together fairly well I believe.
I went to a local public primary school which was as socially mixed as the town. The local shops were equally mixed – French bakeries, Italian restaurants & grocery shops traditionally run by an Arabic family.
The high school was located in the Northern side, at the border with Gennevilliers. Gennevilliers was another culturally mixed suburb, just a little poorer and more “run-down” than Asnieres. This suburb was quite famous because the police were afraid to enter some of the housing commission sites. One of the brothers responsible for the Charlie-Hebdo murders lived in Gennevilliers.
When I started Junior High School in 1985, the Arab kids found out, I assume from my surname, that I was Jewish. I have never been religious, and never spoke about religion, but they knew.
They called me ‘the Jew’. It started in the play area where I faced a lot of intimidation and nasty remarks. On the bus home, they would regularly stare at me and talk about how much they hated my ‘race’. I never defended myself, they were older, stronger and I was afraid. It was limited to verbal abuse – they never touched me. I still hated going to school because of them. In the late 80s the Arab community was still a minority in the school.
