wikieditor
10,503
edits
Quebec, Israel and the Jewish community - Speech by Premier of Quebec Bernard Landry: Difference between revisions
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
Quebec, Israel and the Jewish community - Speech by Premier of Quebec Bernard Landry (view source)
Revision as of 20:21, 13 February 2007
, 13 February 2007no edit summary
mNo edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
| Line 30: | Line 30: | ||
Plantation of cypress with edge of Jerusalem... Although any comparison is perilous, force is to note that, between Quebec and Israel, analogies are legion. I will quote only some of them. The famous historian [[Wikipedia:Arnold Toynbee|Arnold Toynbee]] one day wrote: "After a nuclear catastrophe, two peoples will survive, the Chinese by their number, and the French Canadians by their obstinacy." Isn't this fierce will to cross centuries common to both our two people? One finds, here and there, this indescribable need to be an actor and no longer a spectator of one's own destiny. | Plantation of cypress with edge of Jerusalem... Although any comparison is perilous, force is to note that, between Quebec and Israel, analogies are legion. I will quote only some of them. The famous historian [[Wikipedia:Arnold Toynbee|Arnold Toynbee]] one day wrote: "After a nuclear catastrophe, two peoples will survive, the Chinese by their number, and the French Canadians by their obstinacy." Isn't this fierce will to cross centuries common to both our two people? One finds, here and there, this indescribable need to be an actor and no longer a spectator of one's own destiny. | ||
Much like for Quebec, the cultural future of Israel, where more than 500 000 people have a command of Molière's language, remains tied to Europe, to its French and French-speaking component. The Czech novelist [[Wikipedia:Milan Kundera|Milan Kundera]], recipient of the [[Prix de Jérusalem]], summarized this very special attachment in the first words of his short speech pronounced in French: "The Jews, even after being tragically disappointed by Europe, remained faithful to this European cosmopolitanism, and Israel, their dear found again homeland, appears to my eyes as the true heart of Europe". | Much like for Quebec, the cultural future of Israel, where more than 500 000 people have a command of Molière's language, remains tied to Europe, to its French and French-speaking component. The Czech novelist [[Wikipedia:Milan Kundera|Milan Kundera]], recipient of the ''[[Prix de Jérusalem]]'', summarized this very special attachment in the first words of his short speech pronounced in French: "The Jews, even after being tragically disappointed by Europe, remained faithful to this European cosmopolitanism, and Israel, their dear found again homeland, appears to my eyes as the true heart of Europe". | ||
At the symbolic level, our flags have the same colour, and the [[Wikipedia:Fleur-de-lis|flower of lily]] was for a long time one of the most used Jewish symbols. This identification of the people of Israel to the lily flower is attested over a period of at least one millennium, that is to say up until the destruction of the [[Wikipedia:Second Temple|Second Temple]] (70 of our era). The lily appeared on the first coins struck under Jewish sovereignty, that is to say in 4th century BC, and was a symbol of the political autonomy of [[Wikipedia:Judea|Judaea]] in relation to the great empires. Today, the one [[Wikipedia:Israeli new sheqel|shekel]] Israeli coin (40 cents) shows exactly this symbol. Immigration also deeply transformed the face of our two societies, and the [[Wikipedia:Francization|Francization]] efforts of Quebec can be compared to the Israeli [[oulpanim]]s where Hebrew is taught to new comers. Another example, with comparable populations numerically speaking, an about equivalent GNP, our two States differentiate themselves on their continent by the importance they give the [[Wikipedia:Knowledge economy|knowledge economy]]. | At the symbolic level, our flags have the same colour, and the [[Wikipedia:Fleur-de-lis|flower of lily]] was for a long time one of the most used Jewish symbols. This identification of the people of Israel to the lily flower is attested over a period of at least one millennium, that is to say up until the destruction of the [[Wikipedia:Second Temple|Second Temple]] (70 of our era). The lily appeared on the first coins struck under Jewish sovereignty, that is to say in 4th century BC, and was a symbol of the political autonomy of [[Wikipedia:Judea|Judaea]] in relation to the great empires. Today, the one [[Wikipedia:Israeli new sheqel|shekel]] Israeli coin (40 cents) shows exactly this symbol. Immigration also deeply transformed the face of our two societies, and the [[Wikipedia:Francization|Francization]] efforts of Quebec can be compared to the Israeli [[oulpanim]]s where Hebrew is taught to new comers. Another example, with comparable populations numerically speaking, an about equivalent GNP, our two States differentiate themselves on their continent by the importance they give the [[Wikipedia:Knowledge economy|knowledge economy]]. | ||