Joining the stream of people converging on Trocadero Square in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, I soon realized that this event would be significantly different from the dozens of Jewish community gatherings I had attended in France.
The atmosphere, rhetoric, symbolism and attendance at the “Justice for Sarah Halimi” protest rally on April 25 suggested to me that France’s Jewish community is entering a new phase in the decades-long slip of its members’ confidence in their future here.
The rally an event with 20,000 participants, one of the largest communal gatherings in decades was sparked by an April 14 decision by France’s highest court. It affirmed that 31-year-old Kobili Traoré was unfit to stand trial because Traoré, a Muslim, had smoked so much marijuana before the 2017 slaying that it rendered him temporarily psychotic.
April 30, 2021 12:12 pm Noémie Halioua, an author and journalist, on Sarah Halimi: The woman who always remained hidden has become the face of her community. (Hannah Assouline/Editions du Cerf)
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PARIS (JTA) The fallout of a French court’s decision in the Sarah Halimi murder case has become a watershed moment for French Jews.
The 31-year-old devout Muslim who killed the Jewish doctor is avoiding a trial because his consumption of marijuana rendered him temporarily psychotic at the time of the murder in 2017, France’s high court ruled earlier this month.
Critics say the judicial system is overlooking an antisemitic hate crime the man reportedly shouted about Allah during his attack on Halimi. Over 20,000 people protested the ruling on Sunday in Paris, symbolizing the swell of frustration, and smaller protest rallies occurred simultaneously in at least three other French cities and elsewhere around the world. The debate about the
A woman holds up a sign during the day of rallies around the world protesting the French judicial system s handling of the Sarah Halimi case, April 25, 2021. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images/ via JTA)
Some of the protesters at the Justice for Sarah Halimi rally in Paris, April 25, 2021. (Cnaan Liphshiz/ JTA)
The Jewish community and the international Israel education organization StandWithUs holds a protest in front of the Consulate General of France on April 25, 2021 in Los Angeles, California to demand justice for Sarah Halimi. - Sarah Halimi a 65-year-old French Jewish woman was killed by her neighbor in her Paris, France, apartment in April 2017. (Apu GOMES / AFP)
At the Sarah Halimi rally in Paris, I saw signs that French Jewry is nearing a breaking point Joel Mergui speaks at the rally.(Cnaan Liphshiz)
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PARIS (JTA) Joining the stream of people converging on Trocadero Square, I soon realized that this event would be significantly different from the dozens of Jewish community gatherings I had attended in France.
The atmosphere, rhetoric, symbolism and attendance at the “Justice for Sarah Halimi” protest rally on April 25 suggested to me that France’s Jewish community is entering a new phase in the decades-long slip of its members’ confidence in their future here.