Joan Sfarr. “There are people who see war as an opportunity”

As a retrospective of her at the Museum of Jewish Art and History ends on May 12, Joan Sfar posts: we will live (1), a work in which he revisits his family history and his heritage as Ashkenazi and Sephardi before embarking on personal reporting in Israel to investigate the future of Jews after the October 7 massacre. Opportunity to chat with the author The rabbi’s cat.

Ms. Figaro: Was it the October 7 massacre that prompted you to pick up the pen and brush?

Joan Sfarr: That’s the starting point. The real question is. “Where are we going to put the Jews?” We built ourselves on two myths. “I am happy as a Jew in France” because, since the Dreyfus affair and the war years, we have felt that Jews have a place in secular and republican discourses; and the second myth. “If things go bad, we’ll go to Israel.” However, the massacre of October 7, on the one hand, and the 1,000 percent increase in anti-Jewish acts in France, on the other hand, put us in absolute anxiety… I saw that worried Jewish mothers had to look for their children in St. a school where Jews hide their religious ornaments. This is counter-intuitive, as it seems to me that the French population is empathetic and evolved on these political and religious themes, starting with a population of North African descent, with whom fraternal ties are maintained. But it takes very few people to turn everyday life into hell…

How would you describe your project?

I tried to talk to as many people as possible, first in France and then in Israel. I like that it’s not about me. People don’t have fixed ideas, they have sorrows, worries and trying to figure out where they stand. This is not a specialized book. I am a portrait painter and I make people express themselves through comics. I interviewed artists because it seems to me that politics has failed in the region and that the military doesn’t know where they are going. We from France have the feeling that we are witnessing pogroms in both camps, not knowing where they will lead. I wanted to break symbols. People with convictions in this field scare me a lot… In this regard, the day after October 7, I was one of the first Jews to speak out, but I am not a spokesperson for all that, I conveyed my personality. Feeling.

Realizing that a picture can’t do anything about hate, as you point out We will live ?

Hugo Pratt spoke about the desire to be useless… I paint without telling myself that it will change the world. On the other hand, it seems to me that comics speak for themselves in the field of journalism and historical work, in the same way that my teacher Joseph Kessel took out his notebook as soon as something happened. They say that it is impossible for two Jews to agree. Since October 7th, we’ve been sharing a common anxiety: disappearing. I’m French, but I have family in Israel, I have collaborators there, and I asked everyone. Why are we here in France or Israel? This leads to questions about the social contract. What is the Israeli social contract in a country with 2.5 million Palestinians inside a country with relations with Gaza, the West Bank? I was surprised. We often say that we have the leaders we deserve. I feel Israelis and Palestinians are better than their leaders. I touched a human and nuanced reality, and I didn’t find hope because everyone in Israel is desperate, but a new energy because individually everyone is asking themselves the right questions;

The anxiety of disappearing exists among both Jews and Palestinians, it seems…

There is a fear of losing humanity on both sides. We should be able to feel the suffering of others, said Delphine Horvilour, and beyond that, listen to the stories of others. My father, an Algerian Jew who was both a supporter of Algerian independence and very much a Zionist, told me: “Tragedy is a story where everyone is right.” Israel and Palestine are both right because the British promised the same land to both peoples. People are aware of it. but in practice it is complicated. I started the campaign for Palestine in 1991. I went to rallies and met young Palestinians and young Israelis. There were easily 25-30% Jews among the pro-Palestinian activists because we all had family there and wanted things to go well. We did not agree on anything, but the discussion took place. Today it has become a place of divisions, slogans and attacks. And the fact that Jewish voices are gone, that we don’t have real Palestinian voices, that community voices often speak for the countries concerned, leads to a lack of discussion. I think this is due to social media promoting radicalism which has never helped the Middle East. When Jews are thrown out during demonstrations, because that’s what it’s all about, the discussion stops.

You were shocked by what we might call the silence of a militant society regarding the October 7 massacre…

I blame all those who usually speak out about public issues for being silent. Even before Israel’s response, when we knew perfectly well what had happened because Hamas had broadcast films of its abuses, no one said anything. However, there was no shortage of opportunities. THE: New York Times also kept silent, but then published an investigation with one hundred and fifty testimonies… Various humanitarian organizations continued to remain silent, and this is unacceptable. The majority of Jews interpreted this in this way. “Okay, justice for all but the Jews.” And the trap is the claim that it will not be against the Jews, but against the Zionists. Here, we are in a stupid ideology. Israel is home to 8.5 million Jews, more than half of the world’s Jewish population…

“The enemy is not a Palestinian or an Israeli, not a Muslim or a Jew. The enemy is the one who decides to target children or civilians. (…)” you write in the section…

I never send two camps back to back because each one has its own story. On the other hand, there are people who consider war as an opportunity. I am not confusing Hamas with the Palestinian people, the settlers of the West Bank, and the population of Israel as a whole. However, there are extremists who believe that war is good news. Highlighting this text, written on October 7, is a way of talking to myself, reminding me why I love this region, why I am Jewish and Arab collaborators there. The first thing I said on TV when I got the call the day after the attacks. “Peace has gone back ten years.” In conflict, all nuanced voices are silenced. My job and that of all artists is not to give immediate answers to extremely serious questions, but to open the door to dialogue and humanity even in the face of absurdity.

(1) We will live, investigate the future of the Jews, Joan Sfarr, ed. Les Arènes, 456 p., €35.