‘French Jews don’t know who their friends are anymore’: Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur on the Gaza war's impact

Haaretz Podcast

Content provided by Amir Factor. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Amir Factor or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

6d ago 36:22

MP3•Episode home

The turmoil around the Gaza war has transformed French Jews into “different people” than they were two years ago, pioneering rabbi Delphine Horvilleur said on the Haaretz Podcast.

“I don't know any of any Jewish family in France who hasn’t had a conversation around the Shabbat table,” Horvilleur said, contemplating possible emigration and wondering what will remain of Jews in France a decade from now.

In her discussion with podcast host Allison Kaplan Sommer, Horvilleur talks about inspiring the hit HBO show "Reformed" and the books she's penned herself: "Living with Our Dead" and "How Isn't It Going? Conversations After October 7."

The rabbi also addressed the hate mail and death threats she received after writing a column in a French Jewish magazine last spring that was critical of far-right members of the Israeli government who justified denying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza as legitimate acts of war. She noted the “really harsh” threats she received were smaller in number than the amount of support.

“Even today, I walk in the streets of Paris, and Jews stop me and say, ‘thank you for speaking out, because we believe exactly what you said, but we cannot say it anymore.’ Somehow the crisis and the war and the pain and the trauma created an inability to talk.

"And for me, the real threat today lies in not being able to say what we think, to talk and re-engage in the Jewish conversation” in which, Horvilleur said, it is possible to be “both supportive of and critical of” Israel.

Join Haaretz and meet our journalists at the Other Israel Film Festival, running from November 6-13 in New York City. Use the code haaretz25 at checkout for 20 percent off admission. View the event schedule and buy tickets here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

404 episodes

#Jewish #Society #Religion #Prime Ministers #Tomer Kariv #News