French Jewish Students Snub ‘Extremist’ Naftali Bennett
A left-leaning affiliate body refused to meet visiting Israeli far right wing minister Naftali Bennett, sparking criticism by the head of France’s umbrella of Jewish organizations.
Roger Cukierman, president of the CRIF umbrella body, criticized the Union of Jewish Students of France, or UEJF, for allegedly refusing a request by Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett to meet with UEJF representatives during his visit to France in October, the news site JSSnews.com reported Wednesday.
UEJF, one of France’s most active and prominent Jewish groups, denied claims they had declined for political reasons to meet Bennett, who heads the rightist Jewish Home party.
“I think they were wrong,” Cukierman said of UEJF. “If they refused to meet him, they were absolutely wrong.”
UEJF president Sacha Reingewirtz told JTA that his group had not refused to meet Bennett. According to JSSnews, Bennett says he was indeed declined an opportunity to meet UEJF students. The website reported the reason cited was that UEJF found Bennett to be an extremist.
On Oct. 31, Reingewirtz wrote on Twitter: “There’s nothing humiliating about refusing to organize meetings for Naftali Bennett.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
