Terrorism in Toulouse hits home

This past Monday, an event rocked the Jewish world and the world in general, as a lone gunman shot and killed three children and a Rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France. We mourn a horrifying loss that will strike fear into the hearts of many young children. The gunman rode onto the school grounds on his motorbike, took out two pistols, and chased everyone into the school while simultaneously shooting haphazardly through the air. In the end, he killed four innocent civilians while seriously injuring others.

I walked into the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway that day wholly ignorant of the catastrophe, but found out about it when a Rabbi explained what happened to a group of students. It struck chords of shock within me. I didn’t think something so sickening could take place in a democratic nation not so different from our own. Although we at HAFTR said Tehillim, a prayer for the sick and dead, I still could not get over the image imprinted in my mind. While I pondered the atrocity of this act, my mind registered my only tangible connection between Judaism and France: Haim Assaraf.

Haim is a transfer student at HAFTR from France. Since he is a French Jew, I wanted to gain his perspective on this horrendous event. He told me that he lived in Paris, France, up until four years ago when he moved with his two parents and three siblings to America. They moved because his father got a job here, and because of the continued anti-Semitism that his family felt in France.

He said it was a fun, good place to live except for the anti-Semitism. I asked Haim if he had experienced anti-Semitism personally and he answered, “My cousin – he was coming home from school and he got out of the subway — two people held him and a third beat him up.” The scariest part of our conversation was his relaxed tone that only comes from experience.

I asked him about the event that took place that day. While I made the obvious connection that Haim is both French and Jewish, what I found out next astounded me. Haim was related to the father and two children that perished. They were his father’s niece’s husband and two children. The family had moved from Israel to France years ago. He said that it was all just shocking, scary. When asked what it all means, his only answer was that he honestly doesn’t know.

Should we be scared? Could it happen here? Well, Haim says “Yeah, it can happen anywhere.” The next question is, “What does this all imply?”

It’s understandable for one to feel scared in Israel, where we are directly targeted by terrorists who want to destroy the Jewish state, but should one feel that way in France, a democratic nation? And, even more so, can one feel that way in America, the greatest nation in the world? The question that permeates all of this is: where can we feel safe? We can only pray and work together to engender tolerance and acceptance, instead of breeding hate and bigotry in the minds

of children.