FJN: Jacques Litvine, can you present yourself in a few words?
JL: My paternal grandparents are from Pinsk (Belarus). My grandfather deserted the Tsar’s army in 1909 with his brother-in-law and they wanted to come and live in Paris. When they arrived in Vienna, they stole all their papers. They came on foot and arrived in France in 1910 at the time of great flooding in Paris. The rest of the family joined them six months later with a baby boy. On my grandmother’s side, they came from Warsaw (Poland) after the First World War. And I was born after the Second World War as an only child. In 1950, we emigrated from Paris to the United States on a Dutch troop ship. In 1959, we returned definitively to France.
In 1965, I did my military service in Madagascar. I am an architect by training.
Since my retirement, I have been volunteering in the community (OSE, AMEJD13…)
FJN: What can lead an Ashkenazi to take so much interest in black Jews and become a member of the FJN?
JL: Everything that is Jewish interests me. The FJN is an interesting adventure since it is a community under construction.
FJN: Have you seen an idea about the origins of black Jews?
JL: Not really. However, it appears that black Jews are rejected by other Jewish groups who in turn reject each other.
FJN: And yet you heard and saw the Ethiopian Jews?
JL: The first time I was confronted with black Jews was during my military service and I carefully followed the astonishing and determined journey of the Ethiopian Jews who paid a heavy price to come and settle in Israel with major integration issues.
In the Torah, there has always been a rapprochement between the African and the Hebrew. Without a doubt.
FJN: When you say that the Ethiopians had big integration problems, are they the only ones in this case?
JL: Absolutely not. The origin of the communities is diverse and automatically, their way of being is influenced by their environment (the Ashkenazim resemble Europeans and Russians, the Sephardim resemble Spaniards and Turks, the Jews of North Africa resemble Arabs, etc.). By the way, during the pogroms of 1881 until the First World War, about two million Jews emigrated to the United States where there were already two hundred and fifty thousand German Jews. The latter did everything to repress them. It was Emma Lazarus who saved the day (her poem is engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty). No wonder what is happening to FJN.
FJN: Do you find that black Jews are rejected by others?
JL: I will not use the word “rejection” but rather the word “misunderstood”. On the one hand because they are black and on the other hand we have known him for a short time. It’s more that than anything else.
FJN: Do you think that “black poverty” plays a role in this misunderstanding?
JL: Poverty is a disease of the Jews. It is a constant in the history of the Jews (Poverty of money and means). Moral support from our co-religionists would be essential.
FJN: What should be done in this case?
JL: (First, they need a big dose of humor), the black Jewish community should be tolerant of each other i.e. they have to do some internal work.
Then, involve everyone to bond better, including children, women, and this on a regular basis, not just during the holidays. Example, preparation for bar bat mitzvah, social actions, cooking or preparing food for women. (Laughter)
This standardization must not make everyone forget their culture because there is not a black African but black Africans, including those who are no longer black (Caribbeans and children born outside Africa).
FJN: Apart from the Ethiopians, have you heard of the Lembas, Igbo, Abayudaya…?
JL: To my great astonishment, we find minorities who are of Hebrew origin but here we are talking about human beings and not the adoption of animals. My answer is simple: “We are all Khazars”. I say to them “welcome”, all those who adopt the 613 mitzvos are welcome.
FJN: Do you have any last words?
JL: I have spent a large part of my life learning and trying to understand. My duty now is to transmit and be available to the whole community. It should be the goal of all of us to do the same.
FJN: Jacques LITVINE, thank you.
Tribute to Jacques Litvine (z’l) for FJN (2014)
