Ethan Katz s Take on Jewish-Muslim History in France Wins Fourth International Book Award

The

American Library in Paris

(ALP) presented its annual Book Award on Nov. 3 to University of Cincinnati historian Ethan Katz for, "The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France." (Harvard, 2015).

Chosen from among six finalists on the short list, Katz received the honor and a cash award of $5,000 for publishing the most distinguished book about France or the French.  An earlier statement by the ALP jury claims that, "The book’s highly original and fresh earlier chapters explore a common Maghrebi culture in which Jews and Muslims had good neighborly relations, and in which their identities were set not only by religion but also by profession, education, tastes in food and music, and many other characteristics. Katz's powerful analysis about how identities are shaped will surely prove to be influential far beyond the subject of Jews and Muslims in France."

Katz's three earlier book awards include the prestigious

2016 David H. Pinkney Prize

from the Society for French Historical Studies, the

2016 J. Russell Major Prize

from the American Historical Association and the

2015 Herbert Katzki Award

for writing based on archival material, National Jewish Book Awards, Jewish Book Council.

INSIDE HISTORY

Throughout the last century, France has become one of the most diverse countries on the globe. But as the world watches France endure frayed relations within its multi-ethnic fabric –– in particular its struggles between Muslims and Jews –– McMicken College of Arts and Sciences historian Ethan Katz says French history tells a more complicated story.

In his latest book,

"The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims From North Africa to France,"

Katz, assistant professor of history and affiliated professor of Judaic Studies and Romance Languages and Literatures, incisively chronicles the history of Jews and Muslims in the French orbit.  

“What we think we know about Muslims and Jews in France is not necessarily true,” says Katz. “As I delve back 100 years to the First World War and trace their story to the present, I find they haven’t always interacted as members of potentially opposed ethnic or religious categories. In fact, France’s Jews and Muslims often understood each other in myriad other ways.”

Katz details how in colonial France and North Africa, Jewish-Muslim encounters were complex. They included brewing tensions and occasional violence but also

cordial and cooperative relationships: Jews and Muslims frequently interacted as neighbors, friends who went to the same cafes and occasionally even lovers.

And many colonial Jewish and Muslim men fought alongside one another in the French army during World War I and World War II.

According to Katz, these dimensions are crucial because they remind us that Jews and Muslims are not primordially opposed to each other in some kind of age-old hatred, as we sometimes hear.

They also show that relations between Jews and Muslims in France up to the present are not simply a spillover from the Middle East.

SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE

As his book traces the local, national and global factors driving relations between France’s Jews and Muslims, Katz dispels the notion that rising anti-Semitism in France originated simply from the evolving discord in Palestine and Israel. Instead, he points to critical tensions that arose in large part from concurrent domestic processes inside France. 

• During French colonial rule most Jews were full French citizens –– Muslims were mostly impoverished colonial subjects. The resulting inequalities in legal status created structural differences in income, education and literacy levels.
• Following migration to the French mainland at the end of French colonial rule, many Muslims and Jews lived in temporary housing. Because of class and status disparity, Jews were able to move out after a few years. Many Muslims today –– 40 years later –– are still there.
• Both groups continue to struggle with the demands of French secularism, which frowns on “other” kinds of ethnic or religious visibility in public spaces. Both Jews and Muslims come from faith traditions that don’t necessarily align with such strict divisions between private and public expressions of identity.
  

“So, when you put the resulting sense of Muslim vulnerability together with the differences in legal status, you start to understand some of the Muslims’ antagonism toward Jews, as well as toward other groups in French society,” says Katz.

LOOKING FORWARD

Katz’s hopes to reach a wider audience with this work, including policymakers.  Katz reached out directly to French Prime Minister Manuel Valls. Since assuming office in spring 2014, Valls has taken an interest in issues of anti-Semitism, terrorism, anti-Muslim discrimination and integration of Muslims. Thus Katz’s father –– a former diplomat –– arranged to get an inscribed copy of the book into the prime minister’s hands. 

Within a few weeks, Katz was pleasantly surprised to receive a personal note from the prime minister.  The note, written in French and dated only five days after the deadly terror attacks of November 2015, addressed the book’s importance, particularly in light of the recent attacks. 

Prime Minister Valls writes:

“The hideous crimes that have struck France have underlined the urgency of mobilizing the French nation in its entirety to battle against religious fundamentalism, racism, and anti-Semitism.  You know how complete my personal engagement is in this regard."
 
“Your book, underlining the complexity and the richness of the history of Jews and Muslims of France, is a precious contribution to the collective work that must be undertaken to prevent a withdrawal [into ethnic divisions]."

As Katz comments on the most recent developments in France, he is quick to point out some of the positive policies France is currently implementing including the creation of a “Greater Paris.

“I think France is starting to respond to a series of issues since the events in January –– the massacres at Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher.  One response is to take Paris, a city historically cut off from what the French call the banlieues, or outlying neighborhoods, and incorporate these poorer outskirts officially into the city proper,” says Katz. This will mean investing many more state resources in these areas. “And because Paris is hard to access from such neighborhoods, French officials are working to extend the Paris metro lines out to the suburbs.”

Valls also has spoken openly about a “territorial, social and ethnic apartheid,” a phrase Katz says no one in France would have been willing to utter 10 or 20 years ago. Thus, Katz says French officials are beginning to recognize that there is a history here that has helped to shape deep divisions.

Katz contends that the French state has long seen Muslim integration as a challenge but that the issue has taken on far greater urgency in the wake of these attacks.

For France to move forward successfully, he suggests, the country will have to balance the need for basic security measures with the need to cultivate greater integration –– two things that do not necessarily go hand in hand.

This is not entirely new.  During the late 1950s, France undertook aggressive affirmative action-type policies designed to integrate more successfully its Muslims – part of an (ultimately unsuccessful) effort to defeat the Algerian struggle for independence by more than military might alone.  The same period, however, included abuses by the French army such as widespread torture and now-infamous episodes of police brutality in Paris in which a number of Algerian Muslims were murdered.

If social programs for integrating Muslims might draw some inspiration from that era, in the matter of security, Katz hopes France will not repeat its harshly repressive policies of that time. Ideally, France’s new efforts will equalize social assistance, increase employment and education and provide a more pervasive sense of integration for its Muslim population.  

This will be key, Katz says, for preventing the radical ideology of ISIS and similar groups from becoming attractive to young Muslims in France who may otherwise feel disenfranchised.

RELATED NEWS

• 12/9/15 WVXU interview with Ethan Katz about his book (audio link)
• World Religion News
• The Jewish Daily Forward
  
• The Multi-Ethnic France That is Under Attack – by Ethan Katz, published in Marginalia
  
• Recent UC forum discussing the Iran Nuclear Deal, including Dr. Ethan Katz
  
• For more info: www.Ethankatz.net