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What We Can Learn from the French-Jewish Experience · Adapting: The Future of Jewish Education

• 0:00
  David Bryfman: Hi everybody, and we are recording today's episode January 6, 2025 today's discussion with Devorah Sarao from France is a continuation of many of the conversations that we've had about Jewish peoplehood, except that this time, it's from someone outside of America and outside of Israel, and that's part of the point here to see what this Jewish people hood concept means beyond some of the traditional geographic understandings of the world in which we live today.
• 0:25
  David Bryfman: But it's more than that, because Devorah is not just contributing to the discussion, but she's adding a considerable voice and a considerable voice from a community that is often overlooked. And what we try and uncover here is how much the rest of world Jewry can actually learn from the French Jewish experience, acknowledging that it is both a unique experience, but there are many themes which are really ubiquitous, things that we can all learn from in some really poignant ways. And importantly for me, this conversation was also about a bit of a rebuttal against some of the mainstream media portrayals about French Jewish community, that it's not necessarily the end of French Jewish community as we might know it today. In fact, Devorah paints the opposite picture, that it is a thriving Jewish community with thriving Jewish education, despite some of the current complexities related to anti semitism and discomfort in that particular country. So it's a really enjoyable episode from a really strong Jewish educator.
• 1:20
  David Bryfman: Might I say, a strong Jewish female educator with a lot of really strong contributions to make to the overall conversation about Jewish education in the world today. And I think you'll enjoy today's episode of adapting as much as I did. This is adapting the future of Jewish education, a podcast from the Jewish education project where we explore the big questions, challenges and successes that define Jewish education. I'm David breifman.
• 1:51
  David Bryfman: I am really pleased to be able to welcome Devora cerao, who is the CEO of the Alliance Israelite universe. I think I pronounced that correctly, and that is an organization in France which is really dedicated to promoting Jewish education in the French Jewish community. I want to add that DeVore and I were recently together in Israel amongst 40 Jewish educational leaders from 14 countries, and there we gathered as part of a forum convened by four completely, well, not completely, but four very different organizations, the Ministry of diaspora affairs and combating anti semitism united the education and Zionist enterprise of the department of the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Pinkus foundation for Jewish education. And I don't mention it lightly that four organizations came together for this really global experience of Jewish educators. But it was part of this forum where Devorah and I were able to have many conversations about the future of Jewish education, the future of Israel education, and what it means to be part of the Jewish people. And with that, Devorah, thank you so much for joining us on adapting today.
• 2:54
  Unknown: Thank you. Merci, Bucha. All right, so just start off by telling
• 2:57
  David Bryfman: us all a bit about the work that you're currently doing. Sure.
• 3:01
  Unknown: So if you allow me, I'll just go back a tiny bit in history. I will go back all the way to 1860 where the alliance was funded, because it's a very important history to tell, to understand the French Jewry and to understand, maybe the relationship between French people and French Jewish community to its Sephardic heritage. Basically in 1860 the Jews, some Jews in France, were benefiting from the rights that were given to them just after the French Revolution. They were benefiting it so much that the social elevator worked very well for them, very, very well.
• 3:34
  Unknown: Therefore, they started to worry and to feel a lot of concern for their brothers and sisters who lived all around the Mediterranean Sea in what we call the Sephardic countries, and where there were actually no rights for those Jews and for this part of the family that they had, and they started to think that they were so lucky to be in France and to have all those rights. How come those Jews around the Mediterraneans he couldn't benefit from it, and Adolf Premier, the same criminal, gave the French nationality to the Jews in Algeria was a very famous lawyer, also funded and was the first president of the Alliance decided in 1860 with some of his friends, some very important people and very wealthy people, to come and assist those brothers and sisters, and the first step they took into assisting them was to create the first Jewish education network.
• 4:29
  Unknown: Before second world war. There were 50,000 children in the Jewish schools of the Alliance all around the Mediterranean sea, and all taught in French.
• 4:37
  Unknown: We continue to maintain schools in France, in Morocco and in Israel. We also maintain a library and archives all the of the history of all those Jewish those countries that had big population of Jews. So we have very rare archives about the Jews of saloniki, of Turkey. He Morocco, etc, etc. And we also want to have an impact on the future of education and leadership in front. And so we have programs of leadership, young leadership program, where we select a group of young women and men who want to commit and have some kind of part to play for the future of the Jewish community in France, and therefore we train them. We have also a very important cultural and training center where we train teachers, and not only Jewish teachers for Jewish schools, we also train, for example, public schools, teachers to the what we call connaissance, Judaism, knowledge and discovery of what it is to be Jewish today in France, from the perspective of Humanities and what Judaism has to bring to the culture and the society, specifically in France, but overall in the world. So let's
• 5:47
  David Bryfman: talk a bit about the Jews of France today. I'll ask you a few questions, and you'll give me as many answers as you can to these data points.
• 5:51
  David Bryfman: So how many Jews live in France today? So
• 5:56
  Unknown: depending on how you calculate and how you count, who's Jewish, but we can all agree that there are 500,000 Jews today in France, which makes it the biggest community in Europe and the third in the world, just after Israel and in the United States.
• 6:10
  Unknown: And what cities do those Jews mainly live in? So they are obviously the main cities that you and me know, which is Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Strasbourg, and smaller communities such as Bordeaux, Montpellier, Toulouse, etc. How
• 6:24
  David Bryfman: do you describe the ethnic makeup of French Jewry today?
• 6:28
  Unknown: So as in any European country after the show, after Second World War, Ashkenazi Jews were coming either from Russia or Eastern Europe, and because France was very much an Ashkenazi community. Very, very few came back. And around the 50s and the 60s, when North Africa was either decolonized or Jews had to run away from those countries. So basically today, it became an extremely, it is an extremely Sephardic Jewish community, which means that it has its habits, it has its customs, it has its way of life and of practicing Judaism, and therefore it is rather mainstream Orthodox community.
• 7:10
  Unknown: Obviously there's also, just like in the rest of the Jewish world, we see a lot of input from the Chabad organizations, and we see a lot of activism coming also from different Zionists and Israeli structures, but it is mostly, I would say, up to 70, 80% even a Sephardic community, knowing that it is not exactly the same as it is in America. For example, we do not have Iranian Jews. We do not have Parisian Jews. We didn't do not have Libyan Jews, but we have mostly North African Jews.
• 7:46
  Unknown: And
• 7:47
  David Bryfman: in terms of Jewish education, what percentage of children approximately go to Jewish day schools in France? So
• 7:52
  Unknown: that's a very interesting question. Actually, we have what we call because this is a very important key element to have and to know about French Jewish education, there is a partnership with the Ministry of Education, which means that all our teachers, if you have a contract with the Ministry of Education, all the teachers of secular studies are paid by the government, by the Ministry of Education. So that's a way that the school, the private school, does not have to carry but the school still, as a parent, you still need to pay fees, and it's an average of 6000 euros per child and per year, including the warm kosher meals at in the middle of the day, because no Jewish mother wants to send her child or his child in a structure where they won't serve a warm meal, warm kosher meal. And that is really, really something that's very strong and very important in the probably Sephardic culture, but I would say overall in the Jewish culture. So today, there's about 100,000 children in the age of being in school, of which a third is in the Jewish school, another third in the public school, and another last third in the private Catholic schools.
• 9:00
  David Bryfman: And what other types of Jewish education exists in France for French Jewry?
• 9:04
  Unknown: So you will find, obviously, different organizations that have Jewish camps, and you have organizations that are in more youth movements. And therefore they will also offer not only activities on weekends and Shabbat, but also during the summer. And you have, obviously the Sunday School, which is not at all the same as you know, in America, Sunday School, which is called here in France, the Talmud Torah, which is actually a heritage already from also from North Africa, because the model was also implemented in North Africa, some kids could go to the French speaking school in Algeria, especially, or even In Morocco, in Tunisia, and go on regular days to their public school or to their Jewish schools. But the talmidura is mostly for Jewish kids or in public schools or Catholic schools, and they go Sunday morning to study the basics of Hebrew and of Jewish history.
• 9:54
  David Bryfman: Dvoriov explained a pretty vibrant, exciting Jewish life in France. Yes.
• 10:00
  Unknown: You're welcome to come to us discover it, but it comes with its challenges regarding traditional communities, where tradition is very well kept, and where every innovation is taken very slowly. And by that, I think you can understand in between the words and my words, that every innovation takes time, but every change, just like any change, once you do the change, no one knows anymore how we used to do it before, and hopefully this is what we are trying to lead, especially us women, because I do believe that we have some facilities to lead change in a world that's constantly changing, but that
• 10:39
  David Bryfman: vibrancy that you describe, and that excitement that I can hear, even in your voice and from knowing you a little bit, is not necessarily the message that the rest of the world hears about the Jews in France, it doesn't take much time to come across an article when you put French Jewry into Google to hear about all of the negative parts about being a French Jew today. In fact, even recently, I believe it was the the senior rabbi in France even said there is no future for the Jews in France as well. So how do you reconcile what these the obvious rise in anti semitism in France and the and the vibrancy of Jewish life there? Well,
• 11:14
  Unknown: I don't see so much of an opposition in a contradiction in what you are telling me. I will tell you that from since Napoleon, who started to organize the Jewish life in France, as you might know, he said you we should give everything to the Jews, as long as they practice Judaism inside their homes and everything as French people, as long as they're French outside their homes. Just understand that this identity, this dual identity, was implemented already, since they were in North Africa, because they were teaching it. I just want to tell you a little story about it, Charles de Gaulle, when he was elected after the war, and he came back after the war to rebuild the country in France, appointed a president in the of the name of Rene Cassandra. Rene cassan was the author of the Okay, now I need to translate that into English. You see, now you're challenging me. Declaration de rodolum, the Declaration of Human Rights. He was the author.
• 12:06
  Unknown: He was the one who organized it, and he was also the president of the Alliance for 30 years.
• 12:09
  Unknown: Charles de Gaulle himself appointed Rene Cass as one of his closest advisor, and person worked for him as the president of the Alliance. There was a huge impact from the Alliance, because they taught in French at a time where French was trying to be superior to English and was trying to occupy the world.
• 12:28
  Unknown: Why am I telling you about this?
• 12:31
  Unknown: Because there is something very, very deep in the heart of the French Jewish people, and a very big pride and acknowledgement of what France gave the its Jews when they came back, especially when they came back to France after they were they had to leave. I won't say they were expelled, but they had to leave from Morocco, Tunisia, and especially Algeria, where it was much more violent toward them.
• 12:55
  Unknown: They came back to France. And if you compare, you know there was a very good documentary, if you compare how the social elevator worked for the Jews who came from those countries to France and those who came from those countries to Israel, and how it worked for them in France, it worked perfectly well for them.
• 13:10
  Unknown: The second and third generations made it to a certain level of comfort by studying, by working really hard, and where it didn't work the same in Israel, for example. So yes, there's a very big duality, and the focus of the newspapers on telling the history of the Jews suffering from anti semitism is true. But at the same time, we continue to lack space in our Jewish schools. We continue to lack space in our synagogues. We're still recruiting rabbis were still having a lot of activities, and Jewish life is still vibrant. I would summarize it by saying that the Jews in France are not willing to give up everything they have heard by being French citizens since the day after the French Revolution.
• 13:55
  Unknown: No one here wants to give it up.
• 13:55
  Unknown: Some of us consider another life in Israel, whether it is for ourselves or for our children, but under no circumstances will we give up our rights and will we give up our status of French Jewish citizens? I'm
• 14:12
  David Bryfman: really interested in the phrase to be a Jew in the house and to be a French person in the streets. And I'm wondering, Is that still the feeling today, or is it, is it more open today than it was in the past. It's a strange thing to say in a modern Western world, I guess that you need to have one identity inside your house and another identity in the streets. And I'm wondering, is it a separate is it really as separate as that? What are the two? Is there more overlap between the two? No, it's
• 14:36
  Unknown: more of, listen, this was Napoleon 18, something. It's more of an overlap. I just what I want to say by that is that today, most French Jews have a very good equilibrium. I don't know how to say this in English.
• 14:47
  Unknown: I always struggle with this word. There's a very good balance between those identities and such a good balance that they just blend naturally. I.
• 15:00
  Unknown: Means I go home and I don't feel less French than I feel when I'm in the street taking the subway to go back home. I think the point is that you you can demand from the country as much as you participate to its life. And that's really the message that comes across if you only look at your traditions and only keep your tradition and stop being an active citizen in the country in which you live, then this is not the right partnership. I think this is the idea that's behind it. And the proof that we have for that is that we have some of our people, some of very good representation in the political world. We have a very good representation in the more local political world, and for that, we're extremely proud to see some of the people of our community that represent us. The constitution is not the same as in America, and showing signs of religion is not at all the same in America and in France. I just remind everyone listening to us that in official buildings, you cannot wear any sign of religion, whether it is a necklace with a cross or a necklace with a Magen David or or hijab or a scarf or even a beard, sometimes because those are called sign of religion. And this is one of the main differences with America, which is that you keep your religion as something more intimate for yourself, that being said, the government since 1905 we have an agreement, just like for the Catholic schools. The Jews also fought at this. At the time when there was a separation of church and state in 1905 the Jews fought with, together with the Christians, to have their own religious schools so they were still Jewish schools. The right for having Jewish schools and the right? Why? Because we're country of freedom, and the government continues to give us contracts of partnership for some of our schools to continue having our teachers paid by the Ministry of Education, which is a very strong thing to say you are you're supposed to be good citizens, you're French, but you can also be Jewish, and you can even benefit for some advantages and some of the structures that the country has to offer.
• 17:06
  Unknown: Devorah,
• 17:06
  David Bryfman: what changed for you and what changed for the Jews in France after October 7?
• 17:12
  Unknown: What did not change after October 7, I personally did not change my name on my Uber app. I'm still called Devora because most of my friends did, they changed the first name by taking a more French sounding name for me.
• 17:30
  Unknown: What I did not change is my address. I did not decide yet to change country or to change address. I'm privileged to live in a in a neighborhood where I don't need to worry about that.
• 17:43
  Unknown: Personally, I don't know if it's because I'm closer to the age of 50, but on a personal level, what has changed is that I lack patience today. I don't think I have time. We have time anymore.
• 17:53
  Unknown: We cannot allow ourselves to waste too much time on thinking sometimes even if there's a big chance that we are going to make mistakes. I don't think we can be too inactive and we can spend too much on thinking and prepping ourselves for impactful programs. And bottom line for my friends and my family and the people I'm close to, Israel has become a real question as to making it our next destination.
• 18:21
  Unknown: And
• 18:24
  David Bryfman: you have lots of personal connections to Israel as well. Obviously, lots
• 18:28
  Unknown: of personal connections. One of my cousins was killed in the Nova at the Nova concert and event. I have my in laws living in Israel. I have my father in Israel, I have my mother buried in Israel. Has been very difficult to go to Israel for even for the York site every year. Yeah, on a personal level, and I want to say on the community level, we never felt in France, there's a very, very strong relationship with Israel, probably because we're so close to Israel, and probably also, because when the families needed to decide after they were ex, I mean, after they were let go from the countries in North Africa, many of them had to decide where to go to, and many families choose, chose, sorry, to split. Some of them would go to America. That's exactly what happened in the family of my grandmother. Two of them went to Israel, one of them went to America, and the sisters went together to France, just a little bit the Rothschild model and so, so, so, of course, we all have cousins in Israel. We all have families. We all have friends. And on a personal level, it's been I'm the mother of teenagers. We're going to finish high school very soon.
• 19:40
  Unknown: And the question is being asked, What do we do next year? Where do we go? Obviously, there are the studies, and there's the army. And how much can I accept to leave with the fact that my son is going to be taught how to fight and how to fight, having weapons with weapons, and not just with words and with the intellectual thinking. Oh.
• 20:00
  David Bryfman: Ah, so much, so much there to just to breathe and to pause and reflect upon.
• 20:04
  David Bryfman: But I want to ask you about this concept called Jewish peoplehood. When you hear the term Jewish peoplehood, what do you think about?
• 20:13
  Unknown: Interesting, because this term doesn't exist in French. I try to translate it to find a little bit of, how can I say of depth into this conversation people who does not exist in French, but Levinas, who was actually a teacher for the Allianz Israeli universal, because he was in the Inyo, which was the school of training school for all the teachers that came from everywhere, because we trained teachers for our schools. Levinas was saying that people who the notion of being a reviv to be, it's basically the responsibility. What makes me what is the common link that I have with you, coming from Australia or America, is only the responsibility that I have towards you. And he talks a lot about the face, what I see in the other one is actually what is what I should be seeing in what is my responsibility. When you need to stand for each other, you will always find and I call that brotherhood, rather than calling it people who, the bond goes way beyond, people who it goes much further. And how does it go further to Mia it's sometimes, as a brother, even if you don't understand what your brother's doing or your sister's doing, you're still going to be there. You're not going to judge. You're not going to think twice if your brother needs you, you're there for him or for her.
• 21:32
  Unknown: And this is the way I see it, and I do not need to know in which synagogue, which synagogue you attend, and if you believe that women should be rabbis. And if you think that we should all keep six hours, three hours, or just like in my case, one hour, because I have a Dutch husband, I do not I do not need to know all of this to know that I need to be there for, for for my brothers and sisters, whether they are in Australia or in Israel. But I do want to say something what makes me sad is that we only remember peoplehood and those notions of being there for each other when we're in times of difficulties. There's still too little. And I'm happy you mentioned this conference where we met again, because this existed prior to October 7, and it's a new it's a new initiative, but there are too many. We tend to forget when everything goes well that we still need to be there for each other.
• 22:26
  David Bryfman: Let me ask you this question, and you may or may not agree with the premise, but I've been in many global Jewish forums when it seems like there are three Jewish communities really present.
• 22:37
  David Bryfman: There's Israel, there's America, and then there's everybody else, and sometimes the everybody else doesn't quite get the same recognition or the same the same voice as some of the other two larger communities.
• 22:51
  Unknown: I think that there is in the French Jewish people. And we go back to the beginning of this conversation, a balance between this dual identity that is leading today to so much creativity that it's almost sad that we are not able to communicate and to make it a model that others could be inspired by. There is so much being done today that totally aligned, whether they are Jewish values or French values aligned with Bertie e Galilee fraternity? And I think that we we are holding on to something that is so important, because France would not be the same today without its Jews. And I know it sounds like a very political thing to say, it is not. It's a historical it's proven. There's a lot of work being done on that France would not be the same today without its Jews that are here since the antiquity, since the Greeks and the Romans. And therefore I believe that what makes us strong is not only what we are today, which is very comparable to the Jews in North America or the Jews in Israel, but what makes us so special is the heritage that we have from that history and the great figures that led us. There's so much that we can learn from all of that. I think those are stories that we're not telling enough, and I think we're totally responsible for it, and where other people could benefit and learn from.
• 24:18
  David Bryfman: It's a really poignant response that so much of our work in Jewish education is often spent trying to make our we'll call them young people, but make our learners more Jewish. Exactly, in some ways, your response has said yes, and by making them more Jewish, they're also going to be more French, which is a really, it's a really interesting response, because therefore the purpose of Jewish education really has these dual parallel tracks, which you don't see as being incompatible with one another at all.
• 24:46
  Unknown: France gave after the Revolution, when it finally gave rights to the Jews to be just like any other French citizen, took us out of the statel and the mela and I am not willing to date, just because some people are trying. To reduce us to our status of Jews only, to go back to a state or to a mellah, and that is exactly what the situation is trying to force us to do, and to push us to do. And today, when I meet with young kids, I tell them, you don't want to be a rabbi. It's fine.
• 25:15
  Unknown: You don't want to be a teacher, no problem, but you're going to first, if you have some free time, come to us, because we're going to train you to be a leader, to give some of your time to whether it is a synagogue or a congregation or a grassroot project, because we need you to have this voice. I want to have a strong Jewish lobbying in France. I want our people to be in the top schools and to enter the top levels of this society, whether it is in politics or in business or in finance or whatever it is, because what the situation is pushing us to do is to go back to the shtetl or to the mela.
• 25:47
  Unknown: And honestly, that is not the way I see Jewish people in France, because that's not what France the rights that it gave us. We should take advantage of it, and I am not going to give back this advantage. And very interestingly enough, if you look at where the Jews live today, when they live in a city, there's no state or there's no you can't say. If you ask me, What's a Jewish neighborhood today? I will pinpoint to some areas, very few, but Jews are scattered everywhere. That's because they're not pushed to live together, to feel protected. I will tell you something else we are not capable and able to have hatsala in Paris or in the big cities, just because Jews don't live next to each other. So if you have a volunteer in case of a problem, you won't be close enough, because we all live so far away from each other that it's when I was young. I grew up in a neighborhood I had to walk 45 minutes to go to school, and that was just the usual. Why?
• 26:39
  Unknown: Because we didn't try, per se, to live very close to each other and to live among ourselves and everything. There's no roof in Paris. There's no eruv. It's because we cannot. We're so far away from each other that they won't be only in Strasbourg as their roof, because they there.
• 26:52
  Unknown: They do have, probably because their proximity with Germany gave them the in the heritage of the state. Oh, but still doesn't exist in France, and so to react to what you said, being a good Jew will allow you to be an excellent French person, and that is exactly what we're trying to do at the Alliance.
• 27:11
  David Bryfman: So what other advice would you give to Jewish educators today? You've got a you've got a forum here, a global forum of Jewish educators and people that care about Jewish education. What's a message that you have for all of them today. So
• 27:22
  Unknown: just because I'm a woman and because I am close to being 50, I think everyone understood that I still go back very often to the woman I was when I was 2025, you know, it's a it's an amazing exercise to do, to talk to yourself, to talk to yourself as being either an eight year old or 20 or 25 and I'm hoping that many of your listeners today are around those ages, and 25 is the right age to ask yourself, what you'll be doing the next decade. I will first have a message for the young women who are listening today because I was a young woman and I knew that it would not be easy to become a leader in a world of men. And today, of course, when I was 25 there was no law for gender equity and there was no ratios, and there was no positive discrimination toward women. You really had to fight and to fight hard, but you couldn't fight if you didn't know what you were fighting for.
• 28:22
  Unknown: So one piece of advice, if you allow me to continue on that path, is for all the women who are listening to us, and the first step if you do want to repair this world with Jewish education, I strongly advise you to pause. It's okay. You have time for it. Find your inner voice. What is gonna make you wake up every day? Because life is gonna be challenging for you as a woman. You might want to become a mother, you might want to become a wife or a partner.
• 28:48
  Unknown: You might want you're gonna have different lives to live in parallel, and you're going to have to have enough motivation, enough every morning to wake up and fight. Because it is a fight. It is an end, and it's totally okay for and I'm totally fine with what I'm gonna say, you're gonna have to fight maybe twice more or even three times more than a man will have to fight, because men will also fight, but you will have to fight even more to continue doing what you need to do every day for many reasons, but you will not keep be capable of doing it every day if you do not know what you wake up for, and if the answer to those questions are only technical and administrative, it's one way of answering it. But you need to find meaning, find the reason why you want to go into Jewish education, find one direction and stick to it and make choices around this one reason you're going to wake up every day and go and fight for advancing this cause, and afterwards, the second step I want to tell to all the women who are listening, especially the young ones, because I know how it feels, you're going to have to go and fight against this imposter syndrome that we all have, and mostly women have. Do not let anyone tell you that. You will not be able to or you're going to be a bigger fool of yourself, or it's going to be hard and the way is going to be long. No problem always take time. Every path you will choose will take time, but you will find the resources in yourself and in mentors and in people who will suggest you different ideas and different ways of looking at things you need to look at, but you really need to find strength inside yourself, coming from yourself and coming from people who are outside, and those people will lead you and will help you get to achieve and to touch as much as possible your goals and your and your vision.
• 30:36
  Unknown: Devorah, final
• 30:40
  David Bryfman: question for you, who is an educator in your life, maybe a mentor, but who is someone who has inspired and transformed to help make you into the educator that you are today?
• 30:49
  Unknown: I'll have to give you a very standard answer, but I have to talk about my mother. I have to answer you that my and I was not able to say that when I was 25 not even when I was 30, and probably not even when I was 35 but my the person that influenced me the most was my mother, for very simple reasons.
• 31:10
  Unknown: She also had a dream, and she also took a very different path than than the path that her her own parents gave her were very integrated and very assimilated in the French country, French citizenship, French ideal of life. She decided to strengthen her Jewish identity. In doing that, she came into a position to her own parents, who tried to assimilate them as much as possible so they could integrate and have the best and take the best of this country, but she took it a very different path, but always very balanced. And when I say I'm not willing to give up any of the rights that were given to me, it's also because I acknowledge this heritage. For my grandparents, they fought enough while educating their children, while giving up extremely good status in Algeria and going all the way down to having very small neighborhood supermarket open 24/7 they fought enough for me today to say, I am not willing to give up. And basically, this is, this is my history. This is the small history in the Big History. This is the small story in The Big History. And when I say, find your inner voice, it's also find your roots. Find out what was given to you, whether it was said or not said, whether it was obvious or not obvious, to make it yours and to make it your strength and to make it what you are today.
• 32:36
  David Bryfman: Laura, thank you.
• 32:36
  David Bryfman: Thanks so much for for sharing with all of us today. Thanks so much for offering a bold perspective on Jewish life in France that I do really feel has implications for World jury and this concept of Jewish peoplehood, or maybe we'll call it now, Jewish fraternity, but I really appreciate just your openness and willingness to talk about all of these issues. So thanks so much for being part of adapting today.
• 33:00
  Unknown: Thank you so much for giving me the possibility to speak about French jewelry in such a deep way to American and North American listeners. Thank you so much.
• 33:11
  David Bryfman: Today's episode of adapting was produced by Dina nussenbaum and Miranda Lapides.
• 33:13
  David Bryfman: The show's executive producers are myself, Karen Cummins and nessa lieben. Our show is engineered and edited by Nathan J Vaughan of njv media. If you enjoyed adapting today and this season, please leave us a five star rating on Apple podcast, or, even better, share it with a friend, maybe someone who you know in France to learn more about the Jewish education project, visit us@jewishedproject.org There you can see more about our mission history and our staff. As always, we are a proud partner of UJA Federation of New York.
• 33:37
  David Bryfman: And thank you as always for listening today, i.