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Anti-Semitic acts: “there was a space for Jewish humor which opened towards others, says writer Michel Wierviorka
19/20 info welcomes Michel Wierviorka, author of numerous works such as the latest “The Last Jewish History”. He returns to the anti-Semitic acts which are increasing in Europe. – (franceinfo)
19/20 info received Michel Wieviorka, whose latest book, “The Last Jewish History”, comes out in bookstores on November 1st.
Sociologist Michel Wieviorka was invited to the set of 19/20 info, Tuesday October 31, on the eve of the publication of his latest book, The Last Jewish Story, golden age and decline of Jewish humor (Of Christmas). Have Jews lost the desire to laugh? “There was a space for Jewish humor, until the 1960s, 70s and 80s, which was open to people other than Jews. If you went to see the cinema Rabbi Jacob, you laughed sympathetically. (…) Then, from the end of the 90s, beginning of the 2000s, this space began to shrink (…) and today, it has dramatically closed”he says.
Does this shrinkage correspond to an increase in anti-Semitism? “There was continued anti-Semitism. There were anti-Semitic terrorist acts (…), prejudices, and then transformations in the world of immigration which certainly opened up a space for anti-Semitism”continues the researcher. Asked about the Stars of David stencilled on buildings in Paris, he asks: “Do we know anything about the authors of these tags? For me, that’s the first question. Because we very often quite spontaneously accuse the world of North African immigration, to put it quickly, and on the other hand, quite paradoxically, the extreme right of Marine Le Pen says ‘we, anti-Semitism, certainly not (…)”says Michel Wieviorka. “I think some of these threats also have something to do with the far right.”