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In viral clip, French TV host asks Jewish guest why he wears a kippah in public
(JTA) — An Israeli professor was asked by the host of a French TV news show why he publicly identifies his religion by wearing a kippah in a clip that went viral on Wednesday.
“Many people are asking, why a professor wears a religious symbol in our studio,” the host of CNews pressed Dr. Cyrille Cohen, head of immunology at Bar Ilan University, who was invited to discuss vaccine effectiveness against the COVID-19 virus.
“For transparency, I wear it everyday, I did not put it on especially for this show,” he responded with an air of confusion.
“קוראים לי כהן, אני מישראל, אני עם כיפה”
הבנתי שהקטע הזה וויראלי למדיי בצרפת, הנה תרגום לעברית: פרופ’ סיריל כהן הישראלי בא להתראיין בערוץ צרפתי כרופא, ונשאל מה פתאום הגיע לאולפן עם כיפה… pic.twitter.com/6v0YM7ZnS5
— סיון רהב מאיר Sivan Rahav Meir (@SivanRahav) December 7, 2022
But French-Jewish journalist Elisabeth Levy, who was also a guest on the panel, pushed further.
“You understand, don’t you, that our non-religious way of life is discrete. It’s not against religion, but you should keep your religion to yourself,” she said.
“My name is Cohen! Why would you want me to ‘keep my religion to myself’? I’m coming from Israel,” Cohen responded in exasperation.
A clip of the video drew quick condemnation on Twitter. “Is this 1930s Europe?” tweeted Israeli journalist Emily Schrader.
Though brief, the exchange illustrated the starkly different perspectives on religious expression in France, the United States and elsewhere in the western world. “Laicite,” or secularism, rather than religious freedom, is enshrined in the first article of the French constitution, which also protects the free exercise of religion. The term has long been understood to imply a strict separation between the private sphere, where religion is accepted, and the public, where it is discouraged.
Religious minorities have complained that French secularism is often gentler with displays of Christianity, than other faiths.
“If a priest came in here would you ask him to take off his cross, if the pope, would you have him take off his cross and head covering?” Cohen said in the exchange.
Since 2004, French public schools have banned all personal displays of religion, including both crosses and yarmulkes. In 2009, debate erupted after a woman was banned from swimming in a public pool while wearing a bathing suit in line with some Islamic interpretations of modesty laws. In 2016, the swimsuit nicknamed a “burkini” was banned by the mayor of Cannes, a beach town.
French Jews also came up against the government’s strict adherence to laicite when a hearing in the trial of suspects involved in the 2015 shooting at a Paris Kosher supermarket, which killed four Jews, was scheduled on Yom Kippur. The French judiciary refused to change the date after requests by the families of the victims, citing laicite.
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The post In viral clip, French TV host asks Jewish guest why he wears a kippah in public appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
It’s not every day that a kosher dill pickle puppet gets a chance to learn some Yiddish.
Monty Pickle, star of the children’s series The Monty Pickle Show, recently joined Rukhl Schaechter, host of the Forward’s YouTube series Yiddish Word of the Day, for an episode teaching viewers the Yiddish words for various wild animals.
Or as they’re called in Yiddish: vilde khayes.
The Monty Pickle Show, a puppet comedy on YouTube and TikTok, aims to show young viewers what it means to be Jewish in a fun, lively way. The series was created by the Emmy Award-winning producers of Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock.
So far, he’s met a number of Jewish personalities, including rabbis, musicians and chefs, and explored holidays like Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah and Passover.
Sitting alongside Rukhl during the lesson, Monty eagerly tries to guess what each word means, providing for some very funny moments.
The post Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’ appeared first on The Forward.
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IDF Nabs Islamic State Terror Suspect in Syria
Guns seized in the course of the operation. Photo: IDF Spokesperson via i24
i24 News – Israel Defense Forces soldiers conducted an operation on Wednesday in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS, the military spokesperson said on Saturday.
The announcement comes as Washington announced a major operation to eliminated Islamic State terrorists in Syria after three Americans lost their lives in a jihadist attack in Palmyra.
The Israeli soldiers completed the operation in Syria “in cooperation with IDF intelligence,” the statement read, adding that “the suspect was transferred for further processing in Israeli territory.”
Additionally, during the operation, weapons were found and seized.
IDF troops “continue to remain deployed along the Golan Heights border in order to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” the statement from the spokesperson concluded.
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Report: Trump Admin Envisions Transformation of Gaza into Chic High-Tech Metropolis
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – The US administration of President Trump vision for the future of Gaza has it transformed into a high-end high-tech hub of luxury and innovation, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
A team of officials understood to be led by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff developed a draft proposal to convert the war-ravaged Palestinian territory into a glittering metropolis, propelling Gazans from poverty to prosperity.
US officials with familiarity with the plan—pitched to foreign governments and delegations as a PowerPoint presentation— are cited in the report as saying that, understandable open-endedness of a project in its early phase notwithstanding, the blueprint has many lacunae and leaves crucial questions unanswered.
Critics cite the plan’s silence on the thorny question of disarming Hamas, the Islamist terror group that ruled Gaza for the past 15 years, and initiated the cross-border incursion and massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023; the attack launched the devastating war that has left much of the coastal territory in ruins.
The plan’s projected cost is put at $112.1 billion over 10 years, with Washington prepared to commit support to the tune of some $60 billion in grants and guarantees on debt for “all the contemplated workstreams” in that time period.
The question of where two million Gazans would reside during the costly and lengthy rebuilding is also left unaddressed, it is understood.
Similar-sounding plans have been mooted by the Trump administration even before it managed to broker a ceasefire in October that paused the two year-long war.