The following message was sent to the Jewish community in France on behalf of the entire JCC movement. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this incredibly difficult time.
To our friends in France,
As we start the new week, we do so with heavy hearts in the aftermath of last week’s attack on Charlie Hebdo, the satirical magazine, and Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket. These two attacks in your nation’s capital have left all of us, Jewish and not, reeling, and groping for explanations about how such horrors can be perpetrated in our midst. We hope and pray for healing for the families and friends who lost loved ones, and for your country, which finds itself at the epicenter of the struggle between the Western values of liberty and personal freedom, and the totalitarian ones of fundamentalism.
As the leadership organization of the JCC Movement, we are proud of the lessons in tolerance and community-building that our JCCs engage in each day. They not only provide a haven of Jewish culture and teaching for Jews of all denominations, but also bring the message of the joy and richness of Jewish heritage and culture to their broader communities. We are directly connected to the FSJU (Fonds Social Juif Unifiee) in this work, the broader impact of which combats racism and intolerance at its root, by offering positive, welcoming community to all.
Please accept our deepest condolences on the loss of Jewish and Parisian lives. We are heartened to see the incredible outpouring of support and solidarity witnessed on Sunday at the Paris rally to commemorate these terrible events, demonstrating worldwide community in the face of adversity, one we hope to see reflected more often in the days ahead.
Continue to do the work you do, which offers hope to illuminate, even in such dark times.
Stephen P Seiden , Chair
Allan Finkelstein, President and CEO
Reader Interactions