France To Run Anti-Semitism Ads

(AP)  A new advertising campaign in the fight against anti-Semitism in France aims to shock.

The campaign, to be launched Tuesday, features serene images of Jesus and Mary with the slur "Dirty Jew" scrawled across them as if in graffiti.

Underneath the picture appears the slogan: "Anti-Semitism: And if it were everyone's problem?"

The advertisements, which will run in French newspapers over a period of about 10 days, were created by the Union of Jewish Students of France, or UEJF.

The UEJF said it recognizes the startling nature of the images but says the goal is to grab people's attention.

"It's a way to wake people up and make them aware," said Yonathan Arfi, the group's president, in a telephone interview. "That's what is important. Today, it is difficult to wake people up without running the risk of shocking them a bit."

He stressed that no disrespect for Catholic images or Catholicism was intended.

"On the contrary, we are, more or less, paying homage to Jesus and Mary as the first to protest racism, the first who took it upon themselves to defend others," Arfi said.

The Conference of Bishops of France declined Friday to comment on the campaign.

The UEJF cited rising anti-Semitism in France as the impetus behind the campaign.

The French Interior Ministry said this week that the number of anti-Semitic acts appears to be rebounding, with 166 counted in the first nine months of 2004, compared to 127 for all of last year. In 2002, the Interior Ministry counted 195 such acts.

France has the largest populations of Jews and Muslims in Western Europe and has suffered a rising tide of anti-Semitic crime since 2000, when tensions between Israelis and Palestinians worsened in the Middle East.

President Jacques Chirac addressed the topic Friday during a reception for the 20th anniversary of the "Judaism and Liberty" association at the presidential Elysee Palace.

"There is no question about allowing a climate of tension, rivalry and antagonism develop in France," he said, adding that France's policy of secularism is the "strongest support of liberty for all and of the respect for the convictions and beliefs of every person."