#JeSuisJuif Hashtag Spreads After Paris Terror

By Anthony Weiss January 10, 2015

(JTA) — In the wake of Wednesday’s deadly attack on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper, the hashtag #JeSuisCharlie (“I Am Charlie”) swept the internet in solidarity with the victims. Then came #JeSuisAhmed, to honor Ahmed Merabet, the Muslim police officer murdered during the Charlie Hebdo attacks, and who has become a symbol of inclusion and respect for non-Islamist Muslims.

Now, after today’s attack on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in eastern Paris has come #JeSuisjJuif, to show solidarity with the beleaguered Jews of France. Here are a few examples

According to an analytics graph posted by hashtags.org, the tweet took off around 7 a.m. Eastern time, and peaked at around 9 a.m., with just under 4,000 tweets per hour. According to topsy.com, #JeSuisJuif has been tweeted more than 20,000 times.

However, it isn’t entirely clear that it’s making the same impact as some of the other solidarity hashtags. For one thing, it’s numbers remain miniscule to #JeSuisCharlie, which, two days after the original attack, and far below its peak, still posted some 676,000 tweets in 24 hours, according to topsy.com. More significantly, as the Jerusalem Post noted, while some of the tweets have been by non-Jews, a significant majority seem to be tweeted by Jews, making it more an emblem of Jewish pride than a display of ecumenical solidarity.

Some of the tweets also took on a notably defensive, or even combative, tone.

Still, others worked to maintain a sentiment of unity.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspectives in Opinion. To contact Opinion authors, email opinion@forward.com.

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