Essay Examines Dual Citizenship ‘In This New Nationalist Era’
Manuel Valls at a Paris café. Note the English-language menu offering snails and bagels. Image by Getty Images
Writer Pamela Druckerman, who is Jewish, has a brilliant, timely essay in the New York Times about her experiences as an American acquiring French citizenship, in the era of Brexit and Trump. A taste:
[D]uring my [citizenship] interview, I froze when asked why I wanted to become French. I remembered hearing that when a rabbi asks someone why he wants to convert, the best answer is that he just feels a burning need to be Jewish. Maybe acquiring Frenchness is similar, and I should say it’s a spiritual calling? I finally just told the truth: I like it here.
It’s Paris. A challenging city in many ways, but with a lot, quite a lot, to like.
Phoebe Maltz Bovy edits the Sisterhood, and can be reached at bovy@forward.com. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.
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