Leading French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy speaks to students at Columbia University. Photo: Nadav Steinmetz.

Leading French philosopher and author Bernard-Henri Lévy spoke powerfully about the connection between Judaism and human rights advocacy at a recent discussion on human rights and moral obligations at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

In a wide-ranging interview with The Algemeiner’s senior correspondent Ben Cohen, Lévy told a standing room-only audience, “I and many others conceive Judaism not as an ‘also,’ not as a tribal community, not as a particularism, not as an identity which you have to leave in order to go out into the world, but as one of the good ways to go naturally into an encounter with the face of the other.”

Lévy also spoke passionately about the recent Iranian-backed onslaught against the Kurds in northern Iraq. “This is an unequal, unfair, fierce attack, and again we don’t move,” he said.

Watch a video of the event below: