My first time visiting Notre-Dame de Paris took place when I was 11 years old. I grew up going to a French school in New York, and visited Paris regularly with my family. The towering spires, the gargoyles, and the nooks and crannies captured my imagination, as they have captured the imagination of the French people and of the world for centuries.

In my mind, Notre-Dame was the appropriate centerpiece to a city of beauty and a culture I grew up identifying with. And yet, as Notre-Dame burned a few weeks ago, I had very ambivalent feelings. In subsequent years, I came to learn that Notre-Dame is a symbol that embodies the dreadful persecution brought on the Jews of France in the Middle Ages, and that its façade has images that reflected and promoted this persecution.

On the façade, there is a representation of a church and a synagogue. The woman representing the synagogue — or the Jewish people — is looking down and subjugated. Her eyes are blindfolded with a sinister snake, and in one hand is her broken staff. In her other hand are the tablets of the Ten Commandments, held down towards the floor. On the other side of the portal is Ecclesia, representing the church and Christianity. She, in contrast, is standing tall, looking straight, and carrying a chalice and a cross. These images convey the doctrine of replacement theology — that the Jewish people have been forsaken by God in favor of Christianity and the Church.

It should be noted that not all of the representations of Judaism on the facade are negative. There is also the statue depicting the marriage of the parents of Mary (Jesus’ mother) in a synagogue, complete with an eternal light and a pile of books. Yet even in this neutral context, the Jews attending the wedding are wearing pointed hats, the head covering that they were forced to wear in order to single them out and humiliate them

As we see in our own time, images carry messages that lead to actions. The ideology behind these images inspired and incited the devastating persecution of French Jewry. The Talmud was burned by the Church in a square right across the river from Notre-Dame. The 100,000 Jews of France were expelled and recalled several times, until the final expulsion in 1394. This abuse involved religious persecution, dislocation, suffering, torture, and the murder of thousands of Jews, in part spurred on by the symbols emblazoned on the front of Notre-Dame. This antisemitism resurfaced later in the history of France, particularly in the times of the Dreyfus affair and the Holocaust.

The moral debate over situations where one people’s icon is the symbol of another’s persecution has recently come to the fore in the United States, concerning symbols of the pro-slavery Confederate government. Should these symbols be removed from universities and public spaces? The South Carolina legislature in 2015 voted to take down the Confederate flag from its State Capitol; the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, is being decided in court. On the other hand, Washington and Lee University, which is partly named after Robert E. Lee, has decided not to change its name.

There are no simple answers to these questions, and each dilemma undoubtedly needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The Church made outstanding efforts to renounce antisemitism with the Second Vatican Council in 1964. In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II apologized for the persecution brought upon Jews by the Church. Is it appropriate for us to call upon the modern French Republic to apologize for the persecution brought about by their kings and the French church in the Middle Ages, and the accompanying imagery on Notre-Dame? And what is to be done with the antisemitic imagery?

Perhaps we can turn to the events in Prague and Wittenberg, Germany, as a possible appropriate response. They both have Christian antisemitic iconography displayed in public. Instead of removing them, a compromise was reached and plaques were put up explaining and condemning the messages of hate.

One can debate whether such prejudiced symbols should be left standing with an explanation, and serve as an opportunity to teach about hatred — or whether they should be removed. Certainly, the addition of a plaque on the façade of Notre-Dame below the statues, explaining the history and renouncing the message, would be in order. It would be an appropriate addition to the extensive reconstruction and renovation that will be taking place. Then, perhaps, the French pride in their icon can be without blemish, and Jews such as myself can move beyond our mixed feelings about it.

Rabbi Jonathan Feldman, PhD, is Community Educator for the Am Yisrael Foundation, an organization that runs programming for young olim and expats from all over the world in Tel Aviv. His other articles can be found on www.rabbijonathanfeldman.com.

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