Yad L’Achim Concludes Lecture Series in Paris Aimed at Combatting Assimilation, Intermarriage
Yad L’Achim is wrapping up another successful round of lectures in Paris aimed at combatting assimilation and intermarriage. The lectures were held in light of numerous cases of Jewish women in France who converted to Islam and married Muslims • Read More
The lectures were organized by members of Yad L’Achim’s French Department, at the request of local rabbis and educators.
“Despite the war in Israel and the serious rise in anti-Semitism, there are unfortunately quite a few Jewish women in France who are in relationships with Muslims,” Yad L’Achim says. “Some of these Muslims are second- and third-generation Arab families from North Africa, and some are immigrants who arrived in recent years from Syria or Africa.
“Unfortunately, as in Israel, in most cases the girls are forced to convert to Islam in order to marry these Muslims.”
Yad L’Achim can attest to the fact that even girls from religious and chareidi families have also fallen into such relationships, due to the atmosphere of permissiveness in France and the difficulty of setting boundaries and restrictions.
“Assimilation among French Jews has been a cause for concern for many years, and it is also a problem for religious and chareidi families. Every week we receive one or two new cases from France. The conferences that we organize are intended to give the public tools to deal with the problem, to open the eyes of parents and to prevent young women from taking steps that could lead to disaster.”
To illustrate the danger, Yad L’Achim featured “Ruth,” a French Jew from a chareidi home who fell into a relationship with an African Muslim. In her talks at the conferences, she described in vivid terms how the relationship quickly turned violent and dangerous.
Her family contacted Yad L’Achim, which smuggled her to Israel and arranged for her to have her own fully equipped apartment in a city with many French immigrants. Ruth’s first-person account illustrated the danger of destructive relationships, the ease with which one can fall into them, and, above all, that there is always a way out, even in the most dire of straits.
The lectures were held not only in central Paris but also in remote suburbs with vibrant Jewish communities, such as Saint-Maur-des-Fossés and Pantin.
“Over a thousand women of all ages have participated in our conferences and several young women approached us and asked for our help in getting out of these relationships,” concludes an official of Yad L’Achim’s French Department. “The enthusiastic responses we received indicate the importance of these conferences, and we are confident that they will help many girls escape such destructive relationships. Given the urgency of the matter, we have already begun planning the next round of lectures.”
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