Relations between Jewish and Christian children at primary School

The pupils (not all Christians, some are from others traditions, Islam, Jews, Bouddhists  and so on…) aged 9 and 10 of the catholic schools of Paris  have been corresponding by writing with the Jewish Ganenou pupils also aged 9 and 10 for more than 10 years . They want to carry on... It provides them a deep happiness...

Joëlle Msika - always alive and precious in our memory - and Danielle Kleingbeil were the authors of this adventure. Both they welcome me very well and nicely as soon as 1985 and 1986 when I wanted to correspond with a Jewish school. I didn’t think at this time about what it would entail...
Religious of Our Lady of Sion, born after the Shoa, I have always been shocked from my childhood by the articles of the Historia about the Shoa. I still remember this Jewish child who had been pictured while he was arrested by the Nazis in the Ghetto of Varsovie.

Become grown-up and strong of a Biblical, Judaism, Liturgy training, I wanted Jewish children to be full of joy of a well deserved pride. I wanted them to explain to the whole world that they were.

The way the Ganenou’s team welcome us  and first of all Henri Cohen-Solal , whom I always meet with pleasure in Jerusalem as in Paris , and Michal Gans ( town : Lohamei-Haghetaot , in Galilee) I met in 1996 - let me hope that a deep dialogue between our two communities is able to build a universal peace:

“We have been corresponding with you all this year and are particularly happy of this. Now we pay close attention to what happens in Jewish cemeteries (year of the Carpentras cemetery’s violation). We hope to see you very soon. We will always love you and we hope you feel the same. You are the People of God and nothing can change this matter of fact.(Extract of a 1989/1990 correspondence between the pupils age 10 of “Sainte Genevieve” and the pupils also aged 10 of Ganenou).

“We’d like you to answer the questions we will ask you about your religion. If you do not it is useless to answer yours. We hope more correspondence between you and us” (Extract of a correspondence of pupils aged 10 of Ganenou)

“Dear friends, we will be very pleased to meet you. We’d like to thank Sister Isabelle to have explained us your Jewish religion, which is deeply interesting. See you soon,  future friends”. (Extract of a 1995 correspondence between the pupils aged 9 of ‘Notre-Dame Saint Roch ‘and the pupils also aged 9 of Ganenou )

“I am very pleased you have a New Year’s Day. Have a nice party. I am happy to know how it happens for you the Jews. (Extract of a 1989/90 correspondence between the pupils aged 10 of ‘Sainte Genevieve’ and the pupils also aged 10 of Ganenou)

“Why are different religions? What is the difference between the Jewish religion and the Christian religion” (Extract of a correspondence between the pupils aged 9 of ‘Bossuet’ school and the pupils also aged 9 of Ganenou)

“Why don’t we share the same religion? What does it make of being Christian and learning about other religions? Are Jews and Christians equal for you? Have you something more or less than us? Why aren’t we closer each other? “ (Extracts of correspondences 1990/1993 of pupils aged 10 of Ganenou and the Catholic schools’ pupils also aged 10)

 “Dear future friends, Hello, we are pupils aged 10 of Ganenou. We speak about you, yours festivals, your Christian religion with our Judaism teacher (Zeev) and with Sister Isabelle. We are eager to meet you. We want ask you a few questions in order to better understand you and your religion. Are you okay to answer them? Thanks in advance.
Have you got some questions to ask us about Judaism? Happy New Year! How did you celebrate Christmas? To pray, have you got the same writing as us? What does the New Year’s day mean for you? Are there some pupils who fast during the Ramadan’s day?” (Extract of correspondence (Dec. 1999 of the pupils aged 9 of Ganenou and the catholic schools’ pupils also aged 9/10 of Eugene Napoleon)

 These 10 years’ relationships full of questions and answers, full of hopes of meeting (sometimes impossible) are a real treasure of dialogue for the future of our communities.
Begun with Patrick Levy and followed by Rachel and at last Zeev, also very nice as the rest of the Ganenou’s team, these correspondences express the desire of both communities to discover the “other” with a great respect about “his” identity.

In Ganenou I answer the questions of  9 - 10 years old. When I am in catholic schools I   propose to the 9 and 10 years old children songs that I have created about the Jewish celebrations.
 Now, it would be necessary that Christian teachers be trained to make the dialogue easiest.
Indeed, a dialogue is impossible without:
* A clear and real knowledge of our own identity and faith
* A knowledge which will be deep enough and open-minded of the other community.

A Research Group of European Christian Trainers - GERFEC - that I joined  4 years ago, for some years,  studies the importance of the pedagogy of the inter-religious dialogue (*).

As a conclusion of the little ‘prophetic seed ‘, I’d like to quote the children and their teachers...

In 1997, the 10 years-old children of the school Notre-Dame St Roch  have thought about “Why is this dialogue important?”:
Children: “it is important to trust the others and understand them better “. “ It is also important as it prevent yourself from saying to someone who has another religion: ‘you’re not well’”. “It is significant to share a real friendship and to respect the others”.
Teacher: “it is significant because the difference between our two communities make us feel richer and more open-minded.”

To the same question:” why is this dialogue important? “, the 10 years-old children of Ganenou have answered:
Children: “Once, we are grown-up, we will be to explain our children and so forth  ...”
“It is important because one day we can understand all of us and help each other ...”
“we are happy because we are not self-centred on our religion but we are open-minded”
“It prevents ourselves from being racists and we understand that Christians be Christians
Even if Jesus was Jew. No religion war! “
Teacher ( Zeev) : “ it help us to give a concrete image of words such as Tolerance , Respect ... Which are beautiful words but unfortunately often empty of meaning”

(*)D’Assise à la cour de récréation d’A-B de St Amand et de G. Caffin - éd du Cerf 1999


Since 2003,  I just go to Ganenou school and since 2010 the Jewish pupils’ questions and drawings are on web site : www.ganenou.fr

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Isabelle Denis - Sister of Our Lady of Sion, Paris