Interview Jean-François Kahn 
Reinharc David: You were raised without any reference to the Jewish origin of your father.
You do not claim your Jewishness.
name is to give themselves a destiny then why have recaptured the original surname of your father?
Jean-François Kahn: My father is Jewish, my mother is Catholic, from Burgundy. And my father's mother was herself an Italian and Catholic. I therefore, to use a common expression, a quarter of Jewish blood. Within the meaning of Jewish law, which is the matrilinéairité premium.
Second thing: my father was Jewish and tough, so we had two reasons to hide.
My parents made me baptized, I am Catholic. And I changed my name, the arrival of fascist regimes.
Having lived all my youth to as Ferriot, as' Catholic child, I've never been faced with this identity or anti-Semitism that would have been able to reinforce this identity.
I add that after the war, there was a double will. It is customary to say that there was a postwar desire to minimize the extent of the Holocaust would have had to wait thirty or forty years to give full scope to the Holocaust.
The truth is that the first camps were liberated Dachau and Buchenwald ones, and these concentration camps - unlike the extermination camps like Treblinka or Sobibor - people have returned, so the first contact we have had with those who left the camps, it was for a majority with resistant or communists. Moreover, they were manipulated by the Party. It has, admittedly, played down the Jewish figure in the epic concentration camp.
From 47-48, I realized that my father and my father's family were Jewish. However, the obsession most Jews at that time because they were taken out of the national community as a Jew, was to reintegrate at all costs.
was relativized the total specificity and martyr whose victims were Jews, but less than proof of anti-Semitism, it was quite the opposite a national consensus to address the fact that the Jews had been appointed ... not designating more.
So yes, I lived in that atmosphere where designated as a Jew, was playing into the hands of anti-Semitic, since they had been victim of this appointment.
However, when I was in private school in the middle of the French bourgeoisie, I began to hear heavy anti-Semitic thoughts and then, as my brothers, I decided to take my identity.
Reinharc David: How do you explain that after today hidden their Jewishness and think you have found their Jerusalem in France, ex-Jews who had deposited their assimilation into the wedding, now seeking 'hui to emancipate themselves from the Emancipation?
Jean-François Kahn: We went in ten years of Speech: it was designated as a Jew and spurred on by this appointment, we knew the Curse no longer be considered to French we suffered as Jews, there is no reason that we do not claim that Jewishness. This reappropriation
the signifier Jew had no place in a communal setting.
Ten years later still, there was the shock of 67, and this phenomenon of identification as Jews was the beginning of a third phase.
Fourth phase: it was the arrival of Jews from North Africa, Jews expelled by the Arabs: their identification with the Israelis is therefore all the greater.
Last phase: the development of communalism in general and in this context, the Jewish communitarianism is increasing at the same time.
Jews become aware, after playing a key role in all fields, another community will play a more profound.
weight - including as a lobby or pressure force - the Muslim community has created a stiffening in the French Jewish community considerably.
There are still ten years the project Sarkozy to establish a Ministry of Immigration and National Identity would have caused a real uproar. But today the Jews themselves accept that against the Muslim threat, we must defend the national identity they claim.
David Reinharc : We agree but it's not just the demographic shock of the Muslim community because the Jews were on the verge of assimilating European democracies before being violently rejected.
Milner showed that European democracies are inherently wayward Jew because impregnated in the name of a type of Christian universalism Pauline: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus "This
" neither Jew "is it not the foundation of anti-Semitism?
And this invitation to the universal is not it, in fine an "ambush Christian"?
Jean-François Kahn: It is quite clear that antisemitism is the result of anti-Judaism, carried by the Christian discourse and the myth of deicide people.
That said, you wear a terrible accusation against the Catholic Church and at the same time, you give him credit for having assimilated the universalist message.
Joan of Arc led a war against the English who were also Catholic and we at the time. In reality, the Church has completely forgotten his universal message. I'd rather him
reproach and his anti-Semitism was the result of forgetting this universal message.
One reason for anti-Semitism is that Jews have all the faults of Black, Yellow or Arabs but there is an additional defect: they are like us! They pretend to be like us: this is the very negation of universalism ...
Reinharc David: The new anti-Semitism in the name of universalism and anti-racism, does he not also media leftists who equate the figure of Christ in Palestine?
Jean-François Kahn: First, in the history of antisemitism, there was Christian anti-Semitism is evident at the time of the Affair Dreyfus.
The second-Semitism against revolutionary Jews-with the Freemasons and Protestants-are the source of the French Revolution that destroyed the unity of the race.
then was grafted nationalist anti-Semitism: Jews are Germans, they are foreigners.
All this has created an anti-Semitism deeply reactionary.
There were also anti-Semitism, born in circles Blanquists and socialist anti-capitalism leading to the termination of the Jew as capitalist.
Both currents - progressive and reactionary, have merged to give the fascist anti-Semitism.
This merger took place on the idea that Jews have made the October Revolution.
should not be confused with the fallout of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
First, the extreme left is denied as anti-Semitic: they claim it is the only solidarity with the Palestinian people.
There are bridges, obviously, mais c'est un problème spécifique.
David Reinharc : L'extrême-droite se nie aussi, officiellement du moins, comme antisémite...
Jean-François Kahn : En privé, Le Pen assume son antisémitisme tandis que l'extrême gauche niera son antisémitisme en convoquant l'anti impérialisme, la solidarité avec un peuple opprimé,etc.
Cela réveille en réalité un autre mécanisme mental : l'assimilation du Juif the capitalist. Israel oppresses the Palestinian people, Israel is supported by America, which itself is in the hands of the great Jewish capitalism: we find, yes, viel Blanquist Semitism.
They are anti-Semitic, I think, but they did not take.
Reinharc David: No need to read, it said, their speech in the second degree.
were heard in Durban, on behalf of solidarity with oppressed people: "A Jew, one bullet"
Jean-François Kahn: Globally, there is a totally anti-Semitic extreme left, especially in the Arab world.
But the far left West denies itself as anti-Semitic.
David Reinharc: Tariq Ramadan Forum anti-globalization activists, is not the union of all the extreme left with a conquering Islam, assimilated the new proletariat ?
Jean-François Kahn: The Speech leads to anti-imperialist: the enemies of our enemies - Israel and America-are our friends.
Those fighting against the horror American Bushites, Zionist, it is Ramadan, the Islamists: it is a long way with them because we have the same enemies.
This logic has always existed, there were Jews in the OAS and, more recently, Philippe de Villiers, the event in memory of Ilan Halimi, was welcomed by the community.
We saw a terrible time, as in the days of Stalinism, where both sides was an enemy must be fought at all costs and new alliances are formed on behalf of: l Enemies of my enemies are my friends.
Reinharc David: Regarding anti-Semitism of the extreme left West is not only a critical policy the Jewish state but a desire to eradicate the name of a supposed "original sin" of Israel: this is an anti-Semitism itself ...
Jean-François Kahn: What did you name is there but just for a Part of the extreme left.
Another part, ultra libertarian around and Caroline Fourest Charlie Hebdo, was at the forefront of the fight for secularism against Islamism and his accomplices, against pro-Palestinian discourse that leads to anti-Semitism .
There is a tendency to Monde Diplomatique including Orientalist scholars who assumes this anti-Israel radical.
But in between, you have an extreme-left ambiguous speech which, so far, do not call into question the existence of Israel. And then, to head the World Diplomatic It is also a strong secular trend Republican. That of the former leadership of Attac.
Reinharc David: Do we not attend, in our suburbs as in the global village, the clash of civilizations, one that takes, that of two Islams The radical moderate the cons?
Jean-François Kahn: I think there are Muslim atheists - defining themselves as moderate Muslims - Muslims deeply Democrats and Republicans.
But they are moderates because they have taken great distances with Islamic dogma.
But when it comes to Muslims who adhere to Muslim doctrine, I would say there are no moderate Muslims.
The majority of Muslims are not radicals, not violent but once they join the Muslim community, they adhere to a fundamentalist dogma.
deeply fundamentalist Islam is today.
Catholicism itself was fundamentalist in the last part of the nineteenth.
fundamentalist Islam is intrinsically, it has not the Revolution of Enlightenment that does not prevent millions of Muslims can participate actively in the struggle for emancipation and freedom.
must form a common front with the Muslim democrats and humanists, if not conquer Islam. Do not forget the incredible heroism of Algerian women to resist, against wind and tide, to fundamentalist pressure.
David Reinharc: Philosophically, the Judeo-Christian values you think they are superior to others?
Jean-François Kahn: I think that the higher values are by definition universal.
And I think we can defend them in every country in the world.
That said, I think the values that are the result of civilizations which have worked intellectuals, democrats are dead, these fruits principles of humanism, the Enlightenment, the struggle for democracy and secularism, yes, these values are absolutely superior.
Those who make the connection between a supposedly leftist progressivism and Islam reject the idea that these values are higher and are in total relativism. And I totally disapprove of this position there.
David Reinharc: The Euros are a story: on one side, the architecture of the doors and porches, one of the other bridges.
order to save themselves from serious violent ideologies, Islam does not it, to integrate with Europe, accept this symbolic opening to the other and the size of any European gateway constitutive ?
Jean-François Kahn: Integrating Europe, we must make the effort to integrate yourself with the founding values of Europe, particularly the democratic values - is essentially the separation of Church and State.
David Reinharc: In addition to this separation of temporal and the spiritual, it does not reintroduce into theological humor, critical thinking, questioning to face the world as ambiguity, learning the wisdom of uncertainty?
Jean-François Kahn: There is a great comedy but it is true that Arabic does not turn against Islam.
Islam has no humor in relation to himself.
However, Catholicism has no humor in relation to itself, is outside of itself that it has been shaken by the humor.
And they know it's the humor that has rocked Catholicism the e, and they have not made the separation of Church and State, on behalf of blasphemy, they repress.
They know that when we allow the humor to criticize a totalitarian bloc c ike Islam, this block eventually crack: hence their obsession over the cartoons, jokes, self-mockery.
By definition, it says, the real disconnect between Islam and other monotheistic religions is that by definition, Muslim countries are countries where Islam is the heart, while Israel, for example, created by atheists, socializing, rationalistic, open, liberal, sometimes very anti-religious, cons most supporters of Jewish dogma, have formed a State.
Necessarily, this state has a different relationship to religion an Islamic state.
Reinharc David: If there is Protestantism - the manner of Max Weber, as a religion that encouraged the emergence of capitalism, while for Catholicism wealth is regarded with suspicion, that Judaism inspires you?
Jean-François Kahn: Islam, for reasons close to Catholicism, did not promote the development of capitalism, particularly because of the demonization of the function bank.
Regarding Judaism, I think you can compare it to Protestantism in this area.
Once a religion does not demonize the process of circulation of money, it allows the development of capitalism.
David Reinharc: Except there is no idea of predestination in Judaism, but predominance of free ...
Jean-François Kahn: For once, then it opens up even more the scope of freedom.
Indeed, in its origins, Protestantism is a response profoundly fundamentalist and reactionary.
Paradox: as they have been victims of oppression absolutely terrifying, reactionary and fundamentalist Protestants have become vehicles of emancipation, tolerance and humanism ...
Incredible turnaround because of what they encountered!
Reinharc David: You also wrote that it is from that of 68 suggested the idea that the source of alienation lies in the hierarchical relation to knowledge, so the teacher who transmits, thus the authority.
Youth from 68 considered that it was the modern militarized nation state that was responsible for the Holocaust. Can we
date of 68 declination of martyrdom explains today Nazification the Jewish state but also nation-states in general?
Jean-François Kahn: That's fair enough.
I did not understand why Finkielkraut was launched in the defense reckless disregard of Croatian nationalism and I realized it was your reasoning, but in reverse.
Defender of the tiny nation of Israel, it was a simple projection: he defended the coup for any small nation states, particularly the Croatian nation state.
For some leftists, this phobia of the nation-state was, in fact, contribute to demonize Israel as an example of the nation state.
David Reinharc: Israel may he make peace with an organization whose charter states that "there is no solution the Palestinian question except Jihad "and blames the Zionist enemy responsible for the Communist Revolution and two world wars?
Jean-François Kahn: I think that Israel can make peace with Hamas and the reverse is true ...
Once a unity government with Hamas remains ambiguous on the condemnation of terrorism and refuses to make the acceptance of Israel's existence, there is no negotiation possible.
I add: why Hamas won the elections? Some errors of Israeli policy have encouraged the emergence of Hamas. Some right, even desired victory.
I think it would have to release Barghouti and ensure he was elected president of the Palestinian Authority only he was in position to begin negotiations on the basis of recognition of the State of Israel .
Reinharc David: During the Lebanon war, the media presented the Lebanese killed by the IDF as in Apocalypse Now while Israliens killed by Hezbollah, c 'was Things the life .
How do you interpret this trivialization icy violence that has struck the Galilee?
Jean-François Kahn: The media can now address a problem without going into a totally Manichean.
This applies to the Arab-Israeli conflict but also to all conflicts.
must recomplexifier the real against the tendency of media intellectuals.
Reinharc David: Do you feel there is now a Jewish vote?
Jean-François Kahn: There is almost unanimity not Jews, but Jewish community behind the right-wing candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, who may, yes , to turn against the community.
We fought to Marianne to fight against the idea of a Jewish vote, a Jewish lobby, and it bothers me that this must become true.
Yet today, there is the risk of a confessed mass vote in favor of a candidate. I beg at least the Jews to divide between Bayrou and Sarkozy, not to leave the impression of a community non-pluralistic.
Reinharc David: You're talking about a hard core of the community?
Jean-François Kahn: I am Jewish community - say, 200 000 person- fewer members who tend to vote the same way.
pure fear is a bad counselor: having the reactions, votes, positions taken by fear, is absurd.
It is, Marianne , one of the newspapers in France where there is more Jul fs Zionists.
But when they tried to explain that the Iraq war would turn against them, they do not listen to us.
I'm tired of this. We ask the tough questions without being obsessed by fear and without any Manichaeism: what does it really do to fight anti-Semitism, to fight against Islam, to defend the secular, to fight against this that there are more terrible in the anti-Americanism?
Some community members Jews are responsible for the fact that this debate did not take place: to force retreat into a defensive system because of their fear, they eventually go blind.
David Reinharc: George Steiner has released "Ten possible reasons for the sadness of thought."
What do you now fragile and perishable, and you seem doomed?
Jean-François Kahn: Everything is fragile and perishable unlike the belief of which Victor Hugo, the prophets of continuous improvement.
But I'm convinced nothing disappears either. Look
Hebrew: it was gone and today is the language of a country ...
interview published in "Israel Magazine
