BBC Passover Documentary to Highlight Plight of French Jews Amid Rising Antisemitism
by Shiryn Ghermezian
A BBC documentary scheduled to air during Passover will explore the plight of French Jewry.
The program, Never Again: Fear and Faith in Paris, will examine “the decision of 8,000 Jews to leave France in 2014, concerned about the recent terror attacks and rising antisemitism in the country.” The program will feature interviews with families affected by antisemitism, as well as “insight” from Lassana Bathily, a Muslim from the suburbs of Paris who saved Jews during the Hyper Cacher supermarket attack in 2015.
Among the notable figures who appear in the documentary is Rudi Leavor, president and chairman of the Bradford Reform Synagogue, and Jani Rashid, the first Muslim to be appointed to the congregation’s executive board.
Never Again will additionally showcase a synagogue in northwest London that has hosted a separate service in French every Shabbat since 2013, according to The Jewish Chronicle. Also featured in the program is one British synagogue that has seen its congregation become 90 percent French over the past few years, as more French Jews move to the UK.
Never Again: Fear and Faith in Paris will air on April 26 on BBC One.