The Jewish Diaspora from France to Montréal: Situational Identity and Multi-centred Diasporas

Since 1999, French Jews have been leaving France in order to resettle in Israel, the U.S., and Canada. The main reasons cited for leaving often include safety and security concerns, as well as the desire to be able to openly practice their Judaism, without fear of reprisal (Bénédicte and Dreyfus, 2004; Wasserstein, 1996). One of the main destinations for these Jews is Montréal, Canada, as they benefit from French language policies, and also from a well established Jewish community. Throughout our interviews with 40 Jews from France, many respondents said that Montréal was a city where they were able to freely practice Judaism, converse in French, and maintain their distinct French-Jewish identity. Using the concept of situational identity, we will examine the challenges faced by these emigrants in terms of how their predicament of a multi-centred Diaspora contributes to feelings of belonging, and at the same time, notion of citizenship. Many of those interviewed discuss their parents ’ journey from North Africa to France in the 1960s and their own migration to Canada between 1999 and 2006. Throughout our analysis we found that for respondents, Jewish identity was at the core of their own personal definition of “Jewishness”, citizenship, and cosmopolitan identity