A European View: The Rabbi and the Protestant Minister

Joël Rochard is a Member of the Board of Fonds Social Juif Unifé in Paris- Chairman of the Social Housing Department. He is also a Board member of the ECJC and has been actively involved in Jewish institutions since 1967. He works with the French Administration and is married with 3 children and 3 grandchildren.

In the south of France, a woman - a protestant minister - works with two small congregations in Sainte-Affrique and Millau, two small towns. In 2006, she began wondering if she was not of Jewish descent and called upon a Jewish congregation in Montpellier, the main city in the area.

There, she met the rabbi, who accepted to help her research her background and heritage. As her field was a religious one, she came to the synagogue every week to take the course "Introduction to Judaism". This sort of knowledge could help her in her job with the "Église Réformée de France", so the inter-religious dialogue went on.

One day, after having looked through many databases, she received confirmation that her ancestors were Jews and that she was somehow partly Jewish.

In June 2007, very suddenly, the same rabbi resigned from his position. Some time later, the congregation heard about the wedding of the rabbi and the protestant minister in city hall.

The next month, the protestant minister spoke to the press and said that Jews of Montpellier were nasty people who had fired the rabbi because he had intermarried.

The chairman of the Jewish congregation had to answer that the resignation came before the famous wedding, a decision made by the rabbi himself, without any explanation.

Afterwards, the congregation discovered that ,when hired, the rabbi had produced a résumé listing degrees he did not have. He never even had any smicha. He had indeed studied in a very orthodox yeshiva, but only for three months and had not completed his studies. The place in Israel where he claimed to have worked as a rabbi, had never seen the chap.

At least he was Jewish!