Orientation Didn't Cover This: Jewish Experiences in Paris

It should surprise no one that I’ve been doing **Jewish things** since I’ve arrived in Paris. I went to synagogue my first weekend, and the experience was… not at all different from what it’s like at home, give or take a few traditions. In fact, it was so familiar that it made me think I was at home. Singing Shalom Alechem Friday night was the first moment since I’d arrived in Paris that I realized how far from home I truly was. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I didn’t know how to explain it. I know it sounds incredibly dumb, but it felt… foreign. But there was still an underlying sense of comfort, the ease of knowing exactly what’s happening, even with a language barrier. Speaking of language barrier, the D’var Torah (sermon) on Saturday morning was about Moses’s inability to express himself because of his speech impediment, which I could relate to- I too was in a place where I was expected to speak but was unconfident in my tongue’s abilities to work properly (okay, that’s a bit of a stretch because I’m not trying to free my people from slavery, but you get the point I’m trying to make here). I think the thing that surprised me the most was the French translations of the Hebrew words and phrases. And the transliterations! I could’ve spent all day just studying a siddur. It was a short-lived period of comfort, though, because at the text study that evening, it was like I’d never heard the language in my life. I understood almost nothing, which was very humbling. For those of you who know me, you know that I have a lot to say about almost any subject, and when it comes to Judaism, I could go on for all of eternity. So can you imagine me sitting in a text study about a subject I understood and keeping my mouth shut the entire time? Not a single word. No questions asked, no commentary given, no argument being raised. Nothing. I was so intimidated that I couldn’t even look anyone in the eye for fear that they would ask me if I understood what was going on.

But the tables turned! The following Monday, I met up with my friends at a series of speeches in what I assumed was a JCC-type of building. I’d spent all day in class listening to my professors speak in an endless stream of French, which not only wore me out but was also sometimes difficult to follow. But… put me in a room full of Jewish people and start talking about Torah and mitzvot and Hashem, and it’s like a miracle. I understood basically every word of what the rabbis were saying. Well, except the jokes they told- I made it up to the punch line before missing the ending. I can’t discredit the fact that I understand in English what they were discussing quite well (thank you, 18+ years of Jewish education), but still- immersed for barely five days and I was already leaving my English behind me. (Although, now that it’s been over a week, I almost feel like my French is getting worse. Is that possible?)

It wasn’t all perfect, though. I did feel out of my comfort zone, at least at first. I was like the fish out of water walking into the building alone, overly self-conscious and pulling at my tights. They say that being Jewish is lucky because you can find Jewish people everywhere. While there is very much familiarity in being surrounded by Jewish people, there is most definitely a feeling of unfamiliarity of being in a room surrounded by people that aren’t American Jews or Israeli Jews, which are usually the types of rooms I’m in where everyone is Jewish. Here, it is clear that everyone is neither of those things, and it reminds me that Judaism really is a religion that manifests itself differently in each culture: the frequent combination of kippah and scarf makes me smile to myself (Parisians are OBSESSED with their scarves!) because I think about what American Jews wear that are so overtly American, especially at home in the South- I can see a row of my brother and his friends in coordinating khaki pants and pastel Vineyard Vine button-downs, a kippah from their bar mitzvah on their heads. Same idea, different part of the world.

That’s not to say that other religions aren’t influenced by a country’s culture, but I just think that it’s especially evident in Judaism. And you know what? I love it. I love watching people interact in a synagogue, because no matter where you go in the world, it’s basically the same. I love listening to people study Jewish texts in another language, because I’ve done it the same way in English. And I love that I can walk into a room full of people I’ve never met, in a country I’ve barely been to, and know that I’m not so far from home after all.

#january #paris