Chicago leaders David T. Brown, Marc Sacks and JUF Chairman Bill Silverstein with Paul Fitousi (second from right), principal of Lucien Hirsch Day School, on the national solidarity mission to France in February 2015.

Paris was experiencing one of its darkest winters in February, when eight Chicago lay and professional Jewish community leaders made a solidarity and fact-finding visit in the aftermath of the terrorist murders at the Charlie Hebdo publication and the Hyper Cacher supermarket.

In addition to exploring the somber situation of French Jewry generally, the Chicagoans made personal connections with their French counterparts. Prominent among them is David Revcolevschi, a partner in an international law firm and board member of both the Consistoire Central, one of France’s primary Jewish communal organizations, and of the FSJU, which is the French equivalent of the Jewish Federations.

This week Revcolevschi made his first visit to Chicago to reunite with his new American colleagues and friends, to update them concerning the situation in France, and to continue building a relationship between the Paris and Chicago communities.

“We are thrilled to have David with us again, to learn from him, and to deepen our relationship with the Jews of France. There is no substitute for face-to-face connection,” noted JUF Board member Caryn Rosen Adelman, who introduced a working lunch between Revcolevschi and the Chicagoans he first had met last month.

Revcolevschi underscored the deeper implications of solidarity with the American Jewish community, which he said profoundly moved the Jews of France at a time of need.

“Solidarity is not just an emotional response, which was very intense when we met in France. The next step is for the communities really to know each other,” he said. “The challenge is to know and to share best practices, and to provide opportunities to learn and to meet, so that people can help one another as effectively as possible when needed.”

The terrible events in Paris in January created a tipping point in terms of needs: growing radicalism in Europe, Islamist violence, and a toxic stew of anti-Semitism and hatred of Western values came together in a ‘perfect storm’ of events.

JUF responded by creating its French Terror Relief Fund, part of a Jewish Federations of North America effort to help the French community.

Former JUF Chairman David Brown, who chairs Global Operations: Israel and Overseas of JFNA and led February’s solidarity mission, invited Revcolevschi to Chicago after participating, along with Adelman and JUF staff, in the national allocation process for French emergency and security assistance. To date the national system has allocated $1.1 million.

For its part, JUF raised some $250,000 to assist the French Jewish community; that sum, in addition to helping cover vastly increased security costs, also provides some direct support for the families of the Hyper Cacher victims.

Revcolevschi expressed deep appreciation for the assistance, as well as the need for increased partnership in addressing a common threat and a common Jewish agenda.

“Now things are clear. There is a violent threat from radical Islam. We as Jews want to fight for our rights, but also for what we think society should do and how we can contribute to its cherished values. We share the same values, and I don’t think those threats stop at one border… I think we are facing the same issues that the whole world is facing.”

Andrea Yablon, chair of JUF’s Overall Planning and Allocations Committee, reiterated Revcolevschi’s call to continue to strengthen ties between French and American Jewry, and beyond. “We need to explore a whole host of possibilities for engagement, from youth trips to rabbinic exchanges, and to do this with all Jewish communities.”

“In a globalized world,” Revcolevschi concluded, “strong local communities need to be less isolated and more integrated in worldwide Jewry, for our own sakes and also to serve Israel best.”