Bernard-Henri Levy; photo by Ali Mahdavi

By Paul Freeman [December 2016 Interview]

French philosopher, author, filmmaker and activist Bernard-Henri Lévy’s new book “The Genius of Judaism” is both a very personal work and one that holds universal significance.

In the new book, Lévy explores anti-Semitism, both in its historical context and in contemporary societies.

The Boston Globe said, “Moving and inspiring . . . Bernard-Henri Lévy, perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today, [speaks] truth to power.”

The New York Times Book Review said, “Continually asking himself as well as others to confront the hard questions, [Lévy] produces a text that [is] highly absorbing.”

Praise also came from the Los Angeles Times: “[Lévy’s] discussion of contemporary anti-Semitism is sophisticated, detailed and convincing.”

Lévy’s previous books include “The Testament of God,” “Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against The New Barbarism,” “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” and “American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville.” Lévy, 68, who is married to singer/actress Arielle Dombasie and whose friends include world leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy, rails against injustice and barbarism wherever he finds it, be it Libya, Syria, Bosnia or Darfur. He has never shied away from controversy.

He has traveled to the many of the globe’s trouble spots, to many places where anti-Semitism rages. He feels compelled to meet the world’s evils head-on, rather than avoiding them.

Lévy spoke with Pop Culture Classics prior to an appearance at Palo Alto, California’s Oshman Family JCC.

POP CULTURE CLASSICS:
As you went into this project, did you approach it both as a subject of universal importance and also as a very personal work?

BERNARD-HENRI LEVY:
Yes, “The Genius of Judaism” is a very important book for me. Why? Because it is both 100 percent personal and 100 percent universal. This is exactly what I entered to do in this book. The book is a sort of intellectual and spiritual autobiography. And it is also a message addressed to whoever wants to grasp it and to receive it. It’s personal and absolutely addressed to anyone - both.

PCC:
What led to you reexamining your own religious roots and discovering what the Talmud had to offer?

LEVY:
I would not say religious roots. For me, one of my theses in the book, is that the Talmud is not fundamentally a religious matter. Even more, I would say that Judaism is not an affair of believing. The belief is not central in Judaism. What is asked of the Jew is not to believe. It is to study. It is not to be a believer. It is to be intelligent. It is not to spend his life contemplating the name of God or the sky or whatever. It is to devote his life to study, to intellectual work and to the intelligence of the world. And I mention in this book, that in the most important book of Maimonides, the question of the creed in God, or the belief in God, arrives very, very late, after the truth, after the intelligence, after the ability to grasp the complexity of the world and so on and so on. So the Jew hasn’t been created to believe, but to study. This is my absolute belief, my absolute thesis.

PCC:
And do you feel that is part of the role of Jews in the world - to question, rather than to be among those with blind belief?

LEVY:
Exactly. I think it is one of the most important things that they bring to everyone - this idea that there is not one truth which is given for not being questioned, this idea that there is no point of view that should be unquestioned and received as such, this idea that the spiral of intelligence knows no stop, that it is a constant process. This is really the great thing which the Jews invented.

PCC:
What do the Talmudic teachings offer the contemporary world as a whole, Jews and non-Jews alike, in terms of finding a healthier perspective on existing together?

LEVY:
It gives a help to anyone - to the Jews first, they are really the witnesses and the bearers of these books, Talmud - but to anyone who wants to live with it, it gives this incredible quality and virtue of questioning, in a tireless way, the world and the given truth. Yes, that’s what the Jews did. What I think also, in this book, “The Genius of Judaism,” what is properly essential to Judaism is not as the new evangelists believe in America, is not the Bible. The Bible is common to Jews, to Christians, to Muslims, to so many people. What is proper to the Jews, what belongs to them - belongs to them and to others - but what they had, the responsibility, since centuries, to be the keepers, is the Talmud. And, for me, there is a heresy in Judaism, called the karaism, which is very well known heresy of the Jewish world and it is very difficult for a Jew to be a heretic, because there is no dogma which should not be questioned, as I said before. But this karaism is, really. To be a karaite means to believe that the center of Judaism is the Bible and that the Talmud should be expelled. And this is unforgivable for a Jew, to believe only in the Bible and that the Talmud is just a vague supplement. Judaism is Talmud. Talmud is not a matter of belief. Talmud is a result of study.

PCC:
Being treated as outsiders wherever they’ve gone, throughout history, with the exception of Israel, is there an embracing of the “otherness,” by the Jewish people?

LEVY:
I think the way to address the otherness has been paved and expressed by the Jews. Today, all over the world, if we have the sense of otherness - he may be a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim - it is due to the genius of Judaism. The sense of the otherness has been paved by the Jewish thought, absolutely. There is a saying, very important, in the Rachi, one of the biggest commentators of the Torah, Rachi, whom every Jew in the world worships, and there is a page of Rachi, very important, when he says that every verse of the Torah has to be read as if it was a living thing, a human being, as if it had a face like a human being and as if it had, in fact, actually 70 faces. Seventy is the number of the nations all over the world. It means the every verse of the Torah is a placed in which every single human being - this is what the Jews believe - in which every single human being has to find his own personal, true face. So to read the verse, as a Jew, means to address all the nations. But by itself, it means that, there is no question.

PCC:
The new rise of anti-Semitism, is it the result of a cycle of hatred, current world events, simply an urge for scapegoating? Is it just something that’s always alway been there?

LEVY:
It has always been there, yes, because there are some men and women who don’t want to hear about otherness. There are men and women who don’t want to hear about study. There are men and women who don’t want to hear that the law must be, the moral law must be more important than the nature and the fact that you abandon yourself to your natural instinct. So you have some people that believe that the supremacy of study, they don’t want to have anything to do with that. That is defined as an obstacle in their path, the Jews, because the Jews are the bearers of the belief I’ve just told you. This is the real root of anti-Semitism. And this is one of the reasons why it is going on and on and did not disappear since so long. Now the truth is that it changed form. It’s changed its face. It’s like a virus that changes it appearance, according to the times. But this is another story.

PCC:
The guises of anti-Semitism you list - irrational blame for killing Christ, inventing Christ, being an impure race, the money and power theme and now the anti-Zionism - these are the rationalizations, the excuses for hatred. Given all of that, are you able to maintain hope that this twisted thinking can be defeated?

LEVY:
Yes. I don’t believe in the possibility in the near future to uproot, to suppress anti-Semitism. But I think there is a way to oppose it, to resist it… and to be stronger than it. This is the task that civilized people should have, and do have, including the Jews, regarding anti-Semitism - to be stronger than anti-Semitism, not to let the anti-Semitism stay at that top of the pavement, to oblige them to go more and more into the shadow. That was a moment in the past, when the anti-semites wanted the Jews to get into the shadow. Now my conviction is that it should be the turn of the anti-semites to go into the shadow, to hide themselves. It’s their turn to be afraid to express themselves. It’s their turn to go into obscurity.

PCC:
But isn’t there a danger from not only those who are spouting anti-semitic rhetoric or vandalizing synagogues, but also in those who silently harbor dark, prejudiced, hostile thoughts about the Jews?

LEVY:
It is true. This is a danger. But if I have to choose, I prefer an anti-Semitism full of shame than daring anti-Semitism. I prefer an anti-Semitism, which acts in an underground way, rather than anti-Semitism which acts in open air. I prefer an anti-Semitism in some sort of house alone, half-forbidden newspapers than the anti-Semitism, as far as France is concerned, for example, which in the 30s was present in the Parliament and was fully expressed in the biggest newspapers. f course, I would prefer a world without anti-Semitism at all. But if I have to choose, I prefer a ghost anti-Semitism than the proud anti-Semitism. And I prefer proud Jews than ghost Jews, than Marranes, those Jews who acted in their appearance as Christians and who remained Jews in secret. I prefer a proud Judaism, than the secret Judaism.

PCC:
The new anti-Semitism, is it even more insidious, because people can mask it with a false logic of Israel being a criminal state?

LEVY:
Yes, but that’s one of the reasons that I wrote “The Genius of Judaism,” to establish, to demonstrate without any doubt, that it is not a mask, that it is a new way of morphing and molding itself. I think in one of the first chapters in the book, I established that, without any question. What I established, I think, is that the real question, which Maimonides asked of himself, is how to express myself in the best, most efficient ways. How can I go under the radar of what the collectivity has declared guilty or shameful or so on? So anti-Semitism depends on inventing some ways of expressing itself which disarm, which goes around the standard, well-categorized forms of anti-Semitism. And, in a way, an anti-Semitism which escapes, at least provisionally, open guiltiness, this is a trick for sure.

PCC:
Isn’t it frustrating to see terror attacks on Israel continue to be judged very differently from terrorism in Europe or America?

LEVY:
Yes. for me, it is so sad to see. I am more than happy when, in my country, there is a terrorist attack, there is no excuse. And there is an unanimity to say that there is no excuse whatsoever. But it’s sad to see that the same logic works everywhere except Israel. And when you have stabbings in Israel, when you have some Jihadists who commit the same sort of crimes which are committed in Bataclan in Paris and the museum in Brussels, it is explained in the framework of a political fight between an oppressed people and a people oppressing them. It is so sad, a disgrace. It’s at the expense of Israel, which is as much a democratic state as France or America.

PCC:
Though it is more prevalent in some areas, including France, is anti-Semitism a global phenomenon, do you see it everywhere?

LEVY:
Yes, I think so. The story and the relationship between anti-Semitism and Islam is as close, as strong as the story of the relationship between anti-Semitism and Christianity. Yes, alas, it is a world phenomenon. It is, in a way, anti-Semitism, the most successful religion in the world, religion being, in the Latin language, a way of bringing people together. It’s a way of linking people together. So it is more or less viral, more or less strong. But it exists. And in all latitudes.

PCC:
Do you see this as part of a more general eruption of hate, for those who are different from the majority? Or is anti-Semitism a uniquely destructive phenomenon?

LEVY:
No, it is a very specific form of hatred. As I say again in this book, “The Genius of Judaism,” there is one major difference between racism and anti-Semitism. Racism is a hatred of the other, the other person, considered to have a visible difference. The racist hates the other, because his difference is visible, is conspicuous. He can see it with his eyes. The anti-Semite hates the other, because his difference, his otherness, is invisible, is hardly perceptible, is hardly perceived. The more the difference is tiny, the more the anti-Semite fears it and hates it. The racist, it’s exactly the opposite. The more difference is visible, the more the hate grows. So this does not mean that one is more or less serious than the other. The two have to be fought. One has to fight. I spent my life fighting the two with an equal strength. But in order to fight both of them, you have to understand what they are, exactly what is the singularity and by what they separate themselves, by what they are different.

PCC:
Why is recognizing and fighting anti-Semitism vital to non-Jews, as well as Jews?

LEVY:
To fight anti-Semitism, to fight racism, is the duty of any decent woman or man. It is a fight common to all those who want to live in a breathable society, because when you start hating Jews, very quickly the venom, the poison of hatred contaminates. It’s going all over the society. It’s the beginning of a plague.

PCC:
Whom do you hope to reach with the book?

LEVY:
I frankly did not reflect so much on this question. I just wrote. But since you asked me, I would tell you like this, I have probably two targets - to invite the Jews to be as much proud of their values as possible, to be proud of their heritage, number one. And number two, the book is addressed to the non-Jews, in particular to the Christians, who are, since a few decades, the allies and the friends of the Jews and to invite them to a better understanding, to a better knowledge of their Jewish brothers. And I say “brothers” and I mean it. In the past, in the generation of my parents, Jews were considered as the fathers of the Christians. There was this idea of the ancient testament and the new testament and the Jews being the roots, the stem cell, the fathers of the Christians. If you think of that relationship in terms of father and son, you know what is the logic. The father will die at some point and the son will inherit from him. If you consider the relationship as a relationship between brothers, it is a completely different story. It is a matter of dialogue between two conceptions of the truth, of the values, which are equal in dignity. So the second target of the book is to convince the Christians that the Jews are not their fathers, but brothers.

PCC:
How do you anticipate the election of Trump affecting the situation. Does it reflect an atmosphere of hatred, exacerbate it?

LEVY:
I think so. I say that with all the respect I have for America. I know that I speak as a foreigner, but I don’t believe this election is good for America. I don’t believe that it is good for the American creed, values which I have admired all my life. And I don’t think that it is good for the Jews either. It’s not good news, no.

PCC:
Do you envision us entering another dark age? Or do you maintain some optimism?

LEVY:
I don’t believe America is entering a dark age, because I believe that America is stronger than Trump. Trump will quit the stage and the American creed will remain and will prevail. The creed is much more important and vibrant than the Trump. The creed and the Trump - one is strong, one is weak. One will last, if not forever, at least for a very long time; one will be very temporary, lasting a very short time.

PCC:
And globally, do you envision humanity prevailing ultimately, getting past all the hatred?

LEVY:
For the moment, today, as we are speaking, I look at what is happening in Aleppo. i look at the indifference of the world in front of what is happening there, the leaving corpses, which are the people of Aleppo, the way they’re forgotten by the world, the way in which the American administration is probably going to make them part of a deal with the Russian administration. And this is not a good sign. And this is even a shame. I think that the darkest shadow of our generation will be what is happening today in Syria. It’s an incredible bloodbath. This mass murder on such a large scale is the biggest crime of humanity in this century. It is a stain on our generation.

PCC:
You’ve traveled to many places where anti-Semitism is intense. Is that just part of wanting to be fully engaged in the fight?

LEVY:
Again, I think, first of all, that Jews do not have to define themselves in function of the anti-Semites. The anti-Semites will not dictate my agenda or my conception of duty, number one. And number two, I feel, as a Jew, much stronger than the poor, stupid, narrow-minded anti-Semites all over the world. So, for me, this is not a question - I say what I have to say. I do what I have to do. I wage the battles I have to wage without considering the petty anti-Semitism which can be on my road. And I feel that the Jews are stronger than that.

Visit www.bernard-henri-levy.com.