Bernard Axelrad Scholarship Fund

When in Rome, do as the Romans do - and the same applies to Bordeaux.

On a recent trip to Spain and France we had some interesting experiences and reactions. The Jewish presence in present day Spain is non-existent or negligible at best. When the Jews were expelled in 1492, Spain lost its humanistic, cultural and ethical compass and has never caught up in those areas considering its rich past. The Jewish monuments and historic places shown to tourists are all pre-1492 and I venture to question whether there is a single daily minyan in all of present day Spain.

In France, however, there resides the largest Jewish community in all of Europe, some 600,000 of our compatriots. Large as this seems, it represents only about 1% of the total population and the Jewish presence is muted and low-key by American standards.

We spent a week in the city of Bordeaux, sixth largest in France, and a noted wine center. On our only Saturday there, my wife and I attended Sabbath services in the sole synagogue in the city, an imposing century-old structure bearing on its outside walls the names of its members who were the victims of the Nazis. As most synagogues in France, it was a Sephardic congregation originating in North Africa and the women sat upstairs, separate from the men.

On this particular Saturday it was the time for the blessing of the new month and there was also a bar-mitzvah, so we got a full dose of prayers and festivities. Yet somehow they managed to give me an Aliyah, perceiving that I was a stranger in their midst. I noted with satisfaction that they had as much trouble pronouncing my very common Ashkenazi Hebrew names as we ordinarily experience with the Sephardic names from Iran and Iraq.

After my Aliyah as I was walking back to my seat, almost every man I passed kissed me on each cheek in lieu of our customary handshake. I quickly entered into the spirit of the occasion, figuring if they could embrace this bearded countenance of mine, I could return the favor in kind.

My Aliyah thus brought forth a lot of kissing and my only regret was that all the women were upstairs.