{"id":59882,"date":"2021-02-25T09:36:46","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=59882"},"modified":"2021-02-25T09:36:46","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T15:36:46","slug":"is-bonne-maman-an-anti-nazi-jam-the-internet-wants-to-think-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/is-bonne-maman-an-anti-nazi-jam-the-internet-wants-to-think-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Bonne Maman an anti-Nazi jam? The internet wants to think so."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) \u2014 The heartwarming story has been hard to miss: A law professor is shopping at his local grocery store when sees an elderly woman struggling to get her favorite jam from a high shelf. Why is it her favorite?&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProfessorPerino\/status\/1361050887972663298\">\u201cI am a Holocaust survivor,\u201d she says<\/a>. \u201cDuring the war, the family that owns the company hid my family in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_59883\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59883\" class=\"wp-image-59883 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1.jpg 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-59883\" class=\"wp-image-59883 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-1024x569.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/bonne-maman-1536x853-1.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-59883\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A chance encounter between a law professor and a Holocaust survivor prompted a feel-good story to circulate online. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Tens of thousands of people \u2014&nbsp;at least \u2014&nbsp;have shared the story since it began circulating on social media this weekend. It has prompted countless people to vow to buy only Bonne Maman-brand jam, whose 26 varieties are almost all kosher, in the future.<\/p>\n<p>But is Bonne Maman, with its can\u2019t-miss red gingham jar lids, really an anti-Nazi jam?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The company, whose founding families are famously secretive, isn\u2019t taking any credit for the activity of its founders\u2019 families during World War II.<br \/>\n\u201cThe family prefers to maintain privacy and does not comment on inquiries about personal matters,\u201d Bonne Maman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Perino, the St. John\u2019s University professor who originally posted the story on Twitter, told JTA that the incident happened on Sunday morning in his northern New Jersey grocery store. He said he was surprised by the woman\u2019s composure and ability to shop alone at her age, which he estimated to be late 80s or early 90s. He didn\u2019t ask for her name, not wanting to pry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a beautiful moment,\u201d Perino said. \u201cWhen she gave the explanation, you know, it\u2019s one of these things where your kind of your heart stops for a moment, because it\u2019s totally unexpected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bonne Maman, founded in 1971 by members of the Gervoson family, is based in Biars-sur-C\u00e8re, a town in southern France. Neither the town nor any of its inhabitants are listed on the registry of \u201crighteous gentiles\u201d \u2014 non-Jews who rescued Jews from the Holocaust \u2014&nbsp;that is maintained by Yad Vashem, Israel\u2019s Holocaust memorial and museum.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nor is anyone with the name of the company\u2019s founding families in the database, which is comprehensive and thoroughly researched but does not necessarily include every possible person who might be eligible for it.<\/p>\n<p>At least one person has publicly described his family\u2019s experience being sheltered in Biars-sur-C\u00e8re: A New Jersey man named Eric Mayer&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com\/a-story-of-clinton-worms-and-wayne\/\">told the Jewish Standard in 2016<\/a>&nbsp;that he and his siblings had hidden there after leaving their parents behind in Germany. He even noted that the town, which he said had 800 people at the time he lived there, later became the home of Bonne Maman.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Some&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailydot.com\/unclick\/bonne-maman-holocaust-twitter-fail\/\">internet sleuths<\/a>&nbsp;seeking to verify Perino\u2019s grocery store encounter \u2014 or at least to rebut skeptics \u2014 noted that Mayer told the Jewish Standard that his sister had been with him in Biars-sur-C\u00e8re, suggesting that she might have been the mystery shopper. But the story says that Mayer\u2019s sister died prior to 2016.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, other Jewish children could have wound up in the same town. Many Jewish children who were being sheltered in Paris were moved to southern France after the Nazis invaded the capital city. Biars-sur-C\u00e8re is about a four-hour drive from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, the French mountain town that is&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/2021\/01\/27\/global\/this-dutch-village-is-finally-ready-to-tell-its-unique-holocaust-rescue-story\">one of two municipalities<\/a>&nbsp;honored collectively by Yad Vashem for its efforts to save Jews. There, about 2,500 Jews received shelter during the war. (One of them&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jta.org\/quick-reads\/jewish-man-leaves-2m-to-french-mountain-town-that-hid-him-from-nazis\">left the town more than $2 million<\/a>&nbsp;when he died at 90 on Christmas Day.)<\/p>\n<p>But Perino\u2019s story says the woman said her family was sheltered in Paris, more than 250 miles from Biars-sur-C\u00e8re. Jean Gervoson founded the company with his brother-in-law, Pierre Chapoulart; the Chapoulart family was already established in Biars-sur-C\u00e8re by the war. Gervoson died in 2018, his wife Suzanne in 2015.<\/p>\n<p>Could the self-identified bubbe in the grocery store be confused about where and by whom she was sheltered as a child more than 75 years ago? Could the Gervoson or Chapoulart families have hidden Jews from Nazis and never gotten credit for it? Could Perino \u2014 who later&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ProfessorPerino\/status\/1361834931954077697\">thanked<\/a>&nbsp;those who added details he had not \u2014 have asked a few more questions before posting his story to Twitter?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, yes and, well, yes. But for some who appreciated the story, the facts may not matter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPlease don\u2019t make me fact check the Bonne Maman story,\u201d Jennifer Mendelsohn, a journalist who is widely known for her genealogy sleuthing online,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CleverTitleTK\/status\/1362040716982161408\">tweeted<\/a>&nbsp;on Wednesday morning. \u201cCan\u2019t it be like Santa Claus?\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Is%20Bonne%20Maman%20an%20anti-Nazi%20jam%3F%20The%20internet%20wants%20to%20think%20so.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7138,26],"tags":[11217,8794,11219,11218,8790,8795,8788,11220],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59884,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59882\/revisions\/59884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}