He’s getting better ! In an interview given to Audrey Crespo-Mara which will be broadcast this Sunday, November 19, 2023 in Seven to EightPierre Arditi will give more than reassuring news on his state of health. Weakened a few weeks ago by an asthenic condition leading him to cancel several performances of the play Rabbit in which he plays opposite Muriel Robin, the septuagenarian was able to return to the stage, and reassures his fans by appearing on TF1 in better shape than ever.
Asked about his Jewish roots, Pierre Arditi could not ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 78-year-old actor gave a clear opinion on the situation, and gave a moving speech, initially opposing the policy of the Insoumis, and to the refusal of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to demonstrate : “Ah no. I am part of a left which demonstrates against anti-Semitism; against racism and anti-Semitism”. And to continue, harsher and more categorical, recalling that the victims on both sides, both Palestinian and Israeli, were to be pitied: “If you touch a hair of a Jew, I will be in the street. But if a hair of a Palestinian is touched, for the wrong reasons, I too will take to the streets. It’s the same thing.”
His father narrowly escaped deportation, but not his uncle
Born in 1944, Pierre Arditi is the son of the painter Georges Arditi and the artist Yvonne Leblicq. He grew up between the Jewish and Greek-Spanish roots of his father, and the Christian and Belgian roots of his mother. However, Pierre Arditi today considers himself neither Jewish nor Christian, and his relationship with religion is very distant: “I am, as Raymond Aron would have said, I am a de-Judaized Jew. That is to say, I am an atheist. I am a secularist, and I will be a secularist all my life. But I was raised not in the Jewish religion, but in Jewish culture. My paternal grandparents were Jewish, and my mother was not. In the eyes of religion, I am not” he explained.
Referring to the episode of the 1940 roundup, Pierre Arditi revealed that his family was strongly affected, and that his father, then aged 26, narrowly escaped deportation : “He passed with extreme precision. He almost had the right to do so. One of my father’s brothers died in deportation. There are the names of men from part of my family at Yad Vashem , in Israel” explained the actor.