Couple of young French people, trained in the United States, Emile and Myriam Ackermann will soon be the first rabbis of the so-called modern orthodox current in France. Ernergic and charismatic, they intend to democratize the Jewish study, in particular in the direction of women.
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One evening of Shabbat in 2017, Myriam Sommer, 21, future English professor, crosses Emile Ackermann, the same age, future lawyer, at the synagogue of Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine). Five years later, Emile and Myriam were married, their daughter Elise was born, and the two will be rabbis together. This ministry of couple is unique in Orthodox French Judaism, that is to say practitioner and conservative; And neither had projected himself into this profession before meeting this famous evening.
“Between the two of us, it fuses. The tandem is our trademark, we like to transmit the culture of the debate”, recognizes Emile Ackermann, 26, looking with admiration his wife seated in front of him in him Their small Parisian living room. The couple wishes to embody Judaism that is both conservative and modern, where, according to them, “freedom of thinking is experienced”.
Together, on their chain chain YouTube , they approach questions like “Consent is a Jewish value?”, “Can we be Jewish and vegan?” Or where does the prohibition to marry a non-Jewish person comes from ? “Every day, Myriam produces and animates the podcast DAF Yummy , where she comments for a quarter of an hour the passage of the day of the Talmud, while valuing scholarly references to contemporary and profane literature. “This intellectual tradition to which we are attached, she notes, is specific to so-called modern orthodoxy, where so-called traditional orthodoxy values external references less and thinks that the Torah is self-sufficient.”
“Sorbonnards” or “Rabbis of the future”?
The Ackermann pray three times a day and celebrate the Shabbat. Myriam hides her hair and alternates between wearing the wig and beret in order to comply with the requirements of Jewish law concerning married women. Elegant and sparkling, the couple are gladly displayed, with a large black hat, she with chaste dresses with tight passes. “In France, specifies Emile, the current of modern orthodoxy meets a need for part of the Jewish community, in particular at the opening on society, while valuing a fairly strict observance of Jewish law.”
On social networks, where Emile is very active, their detractors within the Jewish community mock their youth, their haste to found a community in France or their profile of “sorbonnards” eager to teach young overdiplômé believers. Are they the “rabbis of the future” for the generation of 25-35 year olds, or the expression of a young and conservative Jewishness in a French community worried about the increase in anti-Semitic crimes, and marked by departures for Israel?
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