This is the Forward’s coverage of the nation of France.
France
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News EXCLUSIVE: French ‘Anti-Burkini Rabbi’ Dials Back Support for Ban
Rabbi Moshe Sebbag is no stranger to the world of politics. As chief rabbi of France’s historic and prestigious Grande Synagogue de Paris, the Israeli-born cleric is invited regularly to political functions, including events with senior ministers. But for all this, Sebbag appeared shaken at the furor that followed his embrace of the bans on…
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Life France’s Rules? Topless OK — Burkini No Way
Over the past week, enough ink has been spilled about swimwear in France to make you think it’s fashion week. For a country fixated on the female body, this is not particularly surprising. France has a long history of commodifying, objectifying, and editorializing women’s bodies, almost always for the sake of fashion and (usually impossible)…
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Life Seriously, What Orthodox Women Wear to the Beach Is No Different From a Burkini
Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grand Synagogue of Paris, announced this week that he supports the French ban on burkinis, the modest swimwear some Muslim women wear to cover up on the beach. Wearing a burkini, he said, is not “innocent” and it sends a message. But, we ask Sebbag, what difference exactly is…
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Opinion Burkini Wars Show What’s Wrong With the Religious Right — and Secular Left
No matter how progressive our society has become, a woman’s appearance is still scrutinized, commented upon, critiqued, evaluated and dismissed far more frequently than anything said about a man. Just ask Carly Fiorina. Or Hillary Clinton. But this double standard isn’t simply being exercised by those who weren’t brought up with any manners, or lost…
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Fast Forward French Rabbi Defends Controversial Ban of Burkini Swimsuit
— A senior Paris rabbi defended a string of controversial municipal bans in France on wearing publically the full-body swimsuit known as burkini. Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grand Synagogue of Paris, told JTA Tuesday he supported in principle the regulations adopted earlier this month in 15 French municipalities, including the famed beach resort Cannes,…
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Fast Forward French Jew Survives ‘Anti-Semitic’ Stabbing in Strasbourg
— A French Jew in his sixties was stabbed in Strasbourg in a suspected anti-Semitic attack. The man, who was wearing a kippah when the incident happened, was leaving his home when a suspect who is in police custody allegedly stabbed him in abdomen Friday morning, Le Figaro reported. According to Le Monde, the victim,…
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Fast Forward France To Rescue Europe’s ‘Oldest Jewish Building’
— French authorities allocated approximately half a million dollars toward the preservation of what is believed to be Europe’s oldest known Jewish building. Restoration works are to begin in October to save the damaged parts of the Sublime House, which some historians believe was the seat of a 12-century yeshiva – a Jewish religious seminary — in…
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Opinion 42 French Muslims Condemn Terrorist Attacks — Except When Victims Are Jewish?
Over the past two years, the debate among French Muslims over Islam’s place in France — who it represents, what it stands for, why a small minority murder in its name and how to stop them — has intensified with each new terrorist attack on French soil. Following last week’s appalling events in St Etienne…
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