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Sept. 2, 2005
Landing in their one true home
French Jews flock to Israel in record numbers – just in time
for the High Holy Days.
SIMON GRIVER ISRAEL PRESS SERVICE
Yedidia Elkouby speaks ambivalently about France. On the one hand,
the 39-year-old textiles entrepreneur stresses his gratitude to
the country that took his family in as penniless immigrants from
Morocco, when he was just a babe in arms, and insists that it is
unfair to call France an anti-Semitic country. On the other hand,
he tells stories of Muslim threats to his children and the "polite"
anti-Semitism not far beneath the surface of the native-born French.
Elkouby is once again an immigrant. At the end of July, he made
aliyah with his wife, Myriam, and their three children – Ilan,
15, Yoel, 13 and Talia, six. The family reached Israel together
with 300 other French new immigrants on flights from Paris and Marseilles.
Ambivalence to France aside, it is quickly apparent that Elkouby,
a religious Jew, was drawn to Israel not so much as a haven but
because of his deep love for Jerusalem. With a black kippah perched
proudly on his head, he surveys the impressive view from the fifth
story apartment that he bought in the city's exclusive Talpiot neighborhood.
"We are very excited about spending our first Rosh Hashanah
and Yom Kippur here in Jerusalem," he said. "We had everything
in France. We enjoyed a high standard of living and we lived in
the 19th arondissement in Paris, where everybody is Jewish. They
say that there are 150,000 Jews living in our quarter, so I felt
very comfortable walking the streets wearing my kippah. But as a
Jew, I could only feel completely fulfilled living in Israel. You
sit in a sukkah (tabernacle built for Sukkot) in Paris and
it is cold and pouring with rain. The festivals were made to be
celebrated here."
Jewish Agency estimates are that 3,300 French Jews will make aliyah
in 2005, compared to 2,400 in 2004 – and judging by the number
of enquiries about immigration, this figure could reach 4,000 next
year. Thousands more young French Jews are studying in Israel, while
Jerusalem real estate prices have been pushed up, not only by immigrants
like Elkouby but by hundreds of other French Jews buying vacation
homes in the capital.
"My wife and eldest daughter were reluctant to leave Paris,"
admitted Elkouby, "although my son was very enthusiastic. But
Myriam was persuaded when she realized that we could enjoy a high
material standard of living, as well as an improved spiritual life."
Elkouby recounted that his grandparents and four of his aunts and
uncles left Morocco in the 1960s for Israel, while seven other brothers
and sisters, including his father, came to France. "But now
we are almost all here," he said. "Last month my parents
made aliyah. My sister is already here and my brother plans on coming."
"And what do we have to complain about," he added, sweeping
his arm towards his luxury apartment. "My parents' generation
came with nothing."
Elkouby says that he has left his clothing business in Paris with
competent managers and plans on returning there for four days a
month for some hands-on management. He interrupts the interview
several times to field business calls from France on his cellular
phone and is eager to get back to his computer to check for e-mails.
"When my people in Paris have a problem that needs sorting
out," he explained apologetically after one of these conversations,
"I am only a phone call away. And anyway, even when I was based
in Paris, I was travelling abroad much of the time, especially to
the Far East."
Remarkably, Elkouby makes his living by selling textiles to the
Chinese.
"I know it sounds crazy," he said. "I even buy most
of my fabrics in China, make them up into casual clothing in France
and then export them back to the Far East. To be honest, my products
are very ordinary and could have been made in China, but there is
a large wealthy clientele there prepared to pay top dollar for fashions
that were 'Made in France.' "
Elkouby has a charming candor about him, which extends to a discussion
about Israeli politics. On the disengagement from Gaza and Northern
Samaria, which began several weeks after Elkouby reached Israel,
he observed, "Frankly, I was rather upset about the entire
withdrawal from a completely selfish point of view. Here we were
so euphoric about making aliyah and we felt somehow – I know
it sounds silly – that the entire Jewish people should be happy
and celebrating with us. And instead everybody was preoccupied with
disengagement."
However, bucking the trend among Orthodox Jewry, Elkouby expressed
support for the withdrawal.
"Perhaps it's arrogant of me to express an opinion when I am
so new in the country," he said, "but I think we have
to give the Palestinians something if we want peace. We have to
have clearly defined borders if we want to defend ourselves."
As Elkouby relaxes, he begins to paint a less positive picture of
France than his initial assertion that it is not an anti-Semitic
country. He discloses that his son Yoel would only travel on the
metro with a large group of friends.
"If he was with a small group of friends, then they would be
threatened and spat at by Muslim gangs," he said.
He also tells of his own experience in a French court.
"I went to court over a car accident and brought along a witness
to the accident; a passerby who I did not know but who happened
to be Jewish," he said. "At one point, the judge asked
me sarcastically how it was possible that I did not know Mr. Goldstein,
the witness. The point was clear – all Jews are in league with
each other. At that point, I knew that I had lost the case."
Elkouby is confident, even convinced, that a large proportion of
France's 600,000 Jews will soon be following in his footsteps to
Israel.
"Many are going to Miami and Montreal, it's true," he
said, "and thousands more will stay behind in France. But when
I told friends and acquaintances that we were making aliyah, almost
all of them said they would be coming to Israel soon. French Jewry
is very traditional and committed to Judaism and Israel. Aliyah
is a natural step for us. I always felt foreign in France. Only
here do I feel that I am in my own country."
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