Macron’s friendship with France’s chief rabbi causes controversy

On Jan 1, 2024

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) speaks with Grand Rabbi of France Haim Korsia (R) as he arrives to attend the international peace summit "The Cry for Peace", organised by the Italian Catholic Community of Sant'Egidio, in Rome, on October 23, 2022. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA)- With more than a hint of self-mockery, Haïm Korsia said that he literally “lighted a fire.”

le Monde reported Indeed, by lighting a modest Hanukkah candle in the Elysée Palace on Thursday, December 7, 2023, the Chief Rabbi of France triggered a political and media stir of rare intensity.

And, in spite of himself, he dragged the French president into a controversy that none of the two needed. “We have to keep our mouths shut,” Korsia reluctantly said when asked to talk about the incident.

For his part, Emmanuel Macron sought to play down the events.

“I lit the candle of remembrance, the little red candle, which has no religious connotation whatsoever,” he said on public TV channel France 5 on December 20.

Korsia then took the candle in memory of the victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp, and he was the one to light “the first candles of a holiday which is indeed religious,” Macron said.