A Paris butcher shop offers wider lessons in interfaith relations
On Fridays, the Boucherie de l’Argonne closes early. Its Muslim workers head to afternoon prayers and the Jewish ones prepare for shabbat—a practical accommodation for staff sharing similar roots and cultural references.
“We work well together,” said Philippe Zribi, a Tunisian-born Jewish man whose family runs the butcher shop, which employs eight people: three Jews, three Muslims, and two Christians.
In a city still recovering from last year’s extremist attacks, where national news is dotted with reports of anti-Semitism, the store tucked next to an abandoned railroad track offers a more positive face of interfaith relations.
