I'm in London!

First trip outside of France since arriving in August (excluding when I went home for winter break). It's great, my friend Sandra is the best host, and it feels wonderful to take a break from Paris. More details and pictures to come!

We go to Touquet

Before I recount what was the most relaxing and most-needed day, I just need to get this off my chest... I FINISHED MY YEAR AT SCIENCES PO!!! I SUBMITTED MY LAST PAPER, AND I AM SO DONE!!! THIS FEELS AMAZING!!!

So, yesterday we went to the beach. It was actually too cold to swim (I didn't even bring a bathing suit). But the weather was really nice, and the town was charming. It reminded me so much of Falmouth or Wood's Hole that I am now shaking with excitement for Martha's Vineyard! My favorite place in the whole world.

It was absolutely charming. It was great to get outside of Paris and let my brain and my skin breathe. We left early from Gare du Nord, and came back around 20h. Sliding through the French countryside confirmed that I am coming back to France. I love this country way to much.

D'var Torah, Parshat Emor

(I wrote this for Kesher services today)

Shabbat shalom from Paris! I wish I could be there with you to give this D’var Torah myself, but thank you to Mickey, for reading this for me.

Parshat Emor is very interesting. Truly. We get rules for the kohein, the priests, the practices for the holidays, we also get the famous phrase, “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” If I were to go with the latter phrase, I would probably share a story about a fight I had with my sister, Emma, and lessons I’ve learned from her. But having been abroad for a year has caused me to reflect on things more profound in my Judaism than on my relationship with Emma, without any disrespect to her. She’s the best.

So, while reading the Parshat for this week, I was caught between two observations. One, that God gives Moses and the Jewish people the important holidays, which define the lives of today’s Jews all across the world. Two, some of the rules, particularly those regarding sex and marriage, but also the consequences for not observing to the T some of the holidays are quite strict, if not violent. Women, especially those related to priests, really have a hard time of it.

I don’t know how to handle those two aspects. How could a peaceful and loving God, that of Judaism, who gives us comfort from a religious, spiritual, cultural, or traditional standpoint condone stoning and ostracizing?

Ok, well, there’s my personal struggle: how do I handle my Judaism if I am slightly offended by and I don’t abide by these rules? Moreover, how does Reform Judaism deal with rules like these, but maintain the core practices of tradition? For example, in Parashat Emor, God lays out the practices of Yom Kippur saying, “For it is a Day of Atonement, on which expiation is made on your behalf before the Lord your God. 29 Indeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from his kin; 30 and whoever does any work throughout that day, I will cause that person to perish from among his people. 31 Do no work whatever; it is a law for all time, throughout the ages in all your settlements.”

Have you ever been cut off from your kin for not fasting on Yom Kippur? Or maybe you’ve all fasted.

Regardless, I think passages like this pose an essential question about how we personally understand Judaism, but also how Kesher, our Jewish communities at home, and how our movement does as well. One of the most important lessons I learned about my own attitude to Judaism and to Reform Judaism was at Cornell. It is the following: that whatever choice we make about our practices and our beliefs, that they should be conscientious and well informed. For example, I might like to hear the names of the Imahot in the Avidah, because my name is Sarah, but in Reform Judaism and in Kesher we say those names in recognition of the role of women in the Torah because equality between the sexes is an important value for us. It is for decisions like that in the Reform Judaism that is practiced today that I can personally reconcile passages like Ch. 21 verses 1-4 of Leviticus, which forbids a kohein from “defiling” himself by burying his wife, or others. The exceptions to this rule in include family members who are related by flesh, women included (mothers and virgin sisters only). While including the Imahot may seem like a small gesture, I think it’s the thought behind it that gives it power. That is to say, even though we might be finding our own paths through the Torah and halacha, it might be our personal journeys and our journey as a minyan that gives us that profound feeling that comes with being Jewish. Consider Jewish history, it’s nothing if not a long, arduous, but profound journey.

While I think my D’var so far has been more of a personal reflection than anything, I would like to indulge in one more. Being abroad for an entire year (all the Jewish holidays), has really forced me to reflect on how I was going to be Jewish outside of my hometown, New York City, and my other community, Cornell. To be completely honest, I didn’t do any of the religious practices. I didn’t feel like paying exorbitant fees for tickets for High Holidays, seders, or the like. You can’t put a price on Judaism. Meaning worship should be free. Just saying.

But that doesn’t mean that I felt disconnected from “feeling” Jewish. Even though I didn’t go to temple, because I was often the only Jew in the room for the first time in my life, I held onto what being Jewish meant to me with more tenacity than ever before. In one of my classes this semester, there was another exchange student in my class who was also Jewish, who goes to Columbia. When we realized that the other was also Jewish, there was this moment of recognition in the other, like “It’s you!” But outside a few conversations with her, and two students from Cornell studying at different universities in Paris, it was really like being Jewish alone. Which was strange for me, because I identify Judaism with community.

Then, in the end of March, France had its worst anti-Semitic attack in thirty years. Exiting President Sarkozy raised the terror alert in France to its highest possible level. I participated in my first march: a silent walk from Place de la République to Bastille the night of the attacks on the school in Toulouse. At school the next few days, I sat in class or in the library trying to work on the verge of tears. In cruel irony, I had to give an exposé on anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries the day after the attacks. Even though I hadn’t fasted on Yom Kippur, or had gone to Friday night services in a long time, the feeling of belonging remained. I missed Kesher.

My ultimate conclusion is that Judaism is a challenge. It requires each person, each minyan, each community, each movement to figure out for himself, herself, or itself, what has meaning and why. But it’s a challenge that’s fulfilling. I’m pretty sure that if I hadn’t gone through the entire personal and communal questionings that I had as a member of Kesher, I would not have had the grounding I needed to hold onto my sense of Judaism while abroad. It’s super corny, I know, but I think we all have those moments when we go through a crucial moment of self-reflection, and so it stays with us always as a benchmark or guide.

Needless to say, I am really looking forward to coming back to Kesher. I can’t wait to meet all of you who have joined this year, and I wish I were there to say Mazel tov to those who are graduating or moving on. Félicitations, nonetheless. Thanks again to Mickey for helping me organizing this, and to all of you for hanging in there and listening. Have great summers! See you in August (or hopefully earlier or by Skype)!

I would then ask you all these questions: do you feel like Judaism is a challenge? How so? How do you reconcile halacha and Torah with your everyday practice?

OH MAH GAW OBAMA

For the win! I mean, way to take your time. And way to wait until your VP and Sec of Ed jumped the gun. I guess better late than never? I mean it seems kinda elections-driven. At the end of the day, the President of the United States unequivocally supports same-sex marriage. 

If only you were this upfront and straight forward about economic issues. Or health care. Or most things not regarding IR or defense. On that front, you rule hands down.

JK. Not time to criticize. Time to say, I am really proud of my president. Because it's not about whether you want or don't want to get gay-married. It's about civil and civic rights. It's about not imposing your world view or religion on someone else. It's about equality. It's about liberty. It's about what the USA was supposedly founded on. Yay. I don't ever get this patriotic.

Will Obama do what we need him to do?

Will Obama come out in support of same-sex marriage? Here's hoping. After Biden's and Duncan's statements, it seems like he has to clear things up. His administration no longer defends DOMA. It's up to him to strike it down for good, as I can't trust SCOTUS to do it. Even though I love RBG. But can't leave it up to the four liberals. Lol I just noticed that RBG and I have basically the same initials (mine are SBG). 

Finished my last test at Scipo. Just a paper left. My hand is all cramped from writing my 8.5 pager. I haven't had a four hour exam I think since AP Euro. Finals at CU are 2hrs, right?

(Obama is scheduled to give an interview today, some aired this afternoon EST, some tomorrow morning EST)

Il a gagné!

Before I return to being a real person with schoolwork to do, a quick recap of the French election (photos and my own analysis later, I promise, when I find another opportunity to procrastinate).


Last night, François Hollande became the second socialist president of France. Au revoir, Sarkozy. It was an absolutely amazing moment. I was so happy and excite for France. Listening to the speeches of the politicians, they reminded that there is glory, importance, and integrity in being a Leftist, which the Democrats often forget. The international community seems to be a little confused with what to do with Hollande: on the one hand, some countries see France as an ally instead of an international police officer (superflic Sarkozy, au revoir), other are wary of what a socialist-minded world leader will do to the status quo (I'm talking to you, Mr. President, and you, Frau Bundeskanzlerin).


I went to Bastille to celebrate, and got impatient with waiting for Hollande. I left around 00:30, and I think he got there about a half hour later. Oh well. I had to catch the last metro. I did see my favorite, Ségolène Royal, Lionel Jospin, Manuel Valls, Arnaud Montebourg, Bertrand Delanoë, Jean-Michel Baylet (eh), and was made extremely uncomfortable by some overly attentive Turkish men, who didn't ever tell me their names, but kept asking to get a Coke with them. Nice.


Anyways. Sarko is leaving politics. And there's a socialist at l'Élysée. Not bad, France.

The French media weren't allowed to post this until 20h

But the Belgian and the Swiss press weren't to be bothered:

That's pretty much the inverse PS/UMP from 2007, when Sarko got 53% and Royal got 47% (Royal, who is also the ex-companion of Hollande, and mother of his four children).

I'm containing my glee until it's official.

I'm literally so nervous for this election that I can't do anything

I have to keep unnecessarily updating and adjusting. See what I did just there? Exactly what I'm talking about. It's not that I don't have anything to do. I have a final to study for and a paper to write. Also a D'var Torah to write for Friday. I should probably sign myself out of Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, Blogger, life. But then I wouldn't get my updates fix.

I'm also debating on whether or not I want to go to Bastille tonight. If Hollande wins, I might go later, because it would be a while before he speaks, and then makes his way from Tulle to Paris, it'll be a while regardless.

Sarko, Hollande, and former candidates from the 1er tour vote, TF1

7h45 and counting.

It's Election Day in France

Aux urnes, citoyens!

Today France will elect its next president. Sarkozy become the second president to lose reelection? Will Hollande become the second socialist president, and the second François president? Or will the gaullists continue to reign supreme over the regime they created?

It's a rainy, gross day. That means people will not be out amusing themselves in lovely weather, so should hopefully have nothing better to do than go vote.

There won't be news throughout the day, like in the States, because it's against French law to publish any commentaries, polls, or anything regarding election news, (including the candidates, who aren't allowed to make any political statements) in fear of invalidating the election. So, since the campaigns were suspended at Friday midnight, there hasn't been any news. Except for Hollande's trip to the market in the town where he was mayor. It might have been a little crafty, but it was certainly an endearing move. (For description and pictures - Libération, More pictures - Le Monde).

À la Bastille!

Antigone, the dissident

Writing about Sophocles' Antigone in the context of literature and law should be really interesting and engaging. However, after this year at Sciences Po, I am completely in capable of taking a side. That is to say, I have absolutely no opinion about whether or not Antigone is a brave dissident in the face of tyranny, or a glorified fool who doesn't know what law is and how to follow it.

I first read the play in 9th Grade, in Mr. Weisberg's English class. I think my final paper was something about taking pity on Creon (just goes to show you that at a young age I was already fascinated by political power). Is that a strange? Perhaps.

I've read now three times. Twice in French, over the past three months There's something about it that doesn't really speak to me. Maybe I have a hard time putting myself in Antigone's shoes because she's so whiny and overly dramatic. Because I'm never whiny and overly dramatic. Or because I've never been faced with a question or a cause that made me want to put my life on the line. One could argue, however, that Antigone had a death wish (considering her life had been shrouded in death), and so found the perfect opportunity to act on it.

I think for the purposes of my dissert', it's actually about the ambiguity of justice, and what kind of law we follow. Because if both sides make legitimate claims, but one is "human" law, or law of nations, and the other is natural law or even divine law, then how can you possibly reconcile?

This was a very helpful brainstorm for my paper. Much thanks. Tune in tomorrow for election craziness!

PUTAAAAAAAIN (excuse my French)

Nouveau cadeau in my inbox:

"L'administration de Sciences po vient de nous confirmer qu'aucun examen sur table ne peut matériellement être organisé pour les étudiants de notre séminaire. Nous renonçons donc à cette formule. Afin de permettre cependant une appréciation globale plus juste, reposant, non seulement sur vos interventions orales, mais sur un texte écrit, nous vous demandons de nous adresser, par courriel, un texte de 8000 à 10 000 signes (intervalles compris) portant sur une autre oeuvre que celle à laquelle vous avez déjà consacré un exposé. Nous vous laissons choisir librement cette oeuvre parmi les auteurs inscrits au programme du séminaire de ce semestre (1).

Afin de respecter les délais de remise des fiches d'évaluation, vos dissertations devront nous parvenir au plus tard le 14 mai.

Bien attentivement à vous, en vous souhaitant bon courage,

M-A F. R.

A-G S.

(1) Sophocle, Shakespeare, Balzac, Flaubert, Kafka, Dostoievski, Anouilh, Céline, Jonathan Littell."

adfhadfjasjdfkasdnfa;ckahg;aldksdfa;sdfkahdsfalsdjfasdlfadjfahlsdfajksdfhlasdfj "littérature et droit"... officially my least favorite class in my academic career (dislike greater than high school algebra 2/trig-accelerated), and the profs officially the least organized and most ridiculous I've ever had (for example, making fun of an exchange student for his accent during the reprise for his exposé). seriously. WTF. Letting us know NOW?

ARGH I THOUGHT I WAS DONE LE NEUF MAI 

VDM

It's actually not that bad. It's just annoying. Well, it's a good thing that I got so far ahead on studying for "histoire politique de l'Europe au XX siècle." Now I have extra, lovely time to work on a paper. I'm that these profs are such hard graders, when they can barely make it to class prepared. xoxo.

The state of religion in the States.

From about 19:50 on in the interview, into the extended section.

Thank you, Jon Stewart, for expressing what I have been feeling for a long time.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-may-1-2012-david-barton

Le 1er mai - la fête du (vrai) travail

While I would have certainly preferred a Hollande rally to a Sarkozy rally (and because I got the times wrong for the Marine Le Pen rally - which I saw via lemonde.fr was rife with symbolism perfect for my thesis, so I ought to have gone), Sarko spoke at Trocadéro this afternoon in honor of "May Day," International Worker's Day, and French Labor Day.

Here's the set "Le choix présidentiel:" my pictures from the rally and the afternoon.

It was interesting to say the least. It was held at Trocadéro, so he had the Eiffel Tour in the background. Not shabby. The theme music was really intense, almost scary. Certainly plays off the whole fear-mongering theme. It's kind of ironic, though, that his slogan is "La France forte." So under five years of your leadership, France hasn't been strong? Why is threat so much greater now than before? It's not like you can blame the Left, really, because you haven't had a cohabitation.

I was very happy to have captured some of the cheering, particularly the singing of the Marseillaise. It's certainly a rousing song. The speech today was unsurprising, but I'm always curious about the references made. Sarkozy made use of not only Charles de Gaulle, but the glorious artistic, cultural, intellectual history of France: "les enfants de Voltaire," "une langue universelle." It's absolutely fascinating to me. It was also those references that got the crowd the most excited. A couple of quick sentences about the dangers of "communautarisme" and immigration resounded across the crowd. It was then that I became extremely self-conscious for myself and my English-speaking friends.

Regardless, we did notice that the crowd was significantly older than, say, those who attend President Obama's rallies. Sure, that's the whole idea of the Obama campaign, but the fact that they came out, on their days off, in the sun, to stand in a huge mass of people, some supports with canes or rather quite frail, was impressive. I guess that's the convergence between being the president as well as the candidate.

Although I didn't get to see the screen, it was pretty cool to hear Sarkozy's voice live, especially since he chickened out from coming to Sciences Po.

Here is a very amateur splice of the better videos that I took. Please don't judge me for poor editing, I know it's bad. I think it's funny to hear what the people in the crowd are saying to one another, as well as getting an idea of what the atmosphere was like.

In other news, today Minister of Defense, Gérard Longuet, was interviewed in Minute, a weekly extreme right paper. The article was under the title "Barrage à Hollande," and the takeaway is, "Les patriotes ne peuvent pas laisser passer François Hollande." Basically, a UMP plea for FN votes. Terrifying. Especially for me who is technically an immigrant, and might want to become an official one some day.

Tomorrow night is the presidential debate. I am very excited! I actually scheduled dinner plans around it so I could go home and watch it in time.

We finally have good weather here. My host mom's daughter and granddaughter have been spending the past two days with us, which I like, because everyone is friendlier, and we have really good meals. There's lots of fun stories regarding my wonderful host family, which is another post entirely to itself. But for now, it's just la politique.

If you're interested in other pieces I've written while being here about French politics, check out La Péniche, "Trying to Explain American Politics to French People" and Educo / La millefeuille, "La passion politique" (it's in French, tant pis)