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 [email protected]. Her book, The Perils of “Privilege”, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
