One Shabbat evening in 2017, Myriam Sommer, 21, future English teacher, meets Emile Ackermann, the same age, future lawyer, at the synagogue in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine). Five years later, Emile and Myriam got married, their daughter Elise was born, and the two will be rabbis together. This ministry as a couple is unique in French Orthodox Judaism, that is to say, practicing and conservative Judaism; and neither of them had projected themselves into this profession before meeting that famous evening.
“Between the two of us, it fuses. The tandem is our trademark, we like to transmit the culture of debate”, acknowledges Emile Ackermann, 26, gazing admiringly at his wife seated across from him in their small Parisian living room. The couple wish to embody a Judaism that is both conservative and modern, where, according to them, “freedom of thought is experienced”.
Together, on their YouTube channel, they tackle questions like “Is consent a Jewish value? “, “Can one be Jewish and vegan? or “Where does the ban on marrying a non-Jew come from?” Every day, Myriam produces and hosts the podcast Daf Yummy, where she comments for a quarter of an hour on the passage of the day from the Talmud, while highlighting scholarly references to contemporary and secular literature. “This intellectual tradition to which we belong, remark–does she, is specific to so-called modern Orthodoxy, where so-called traditional Orthodoxy values external references less and thinks that the Torah is sufficient in itself. »
“Sorbonnards” or “rabbis of the future”?
The Ackermanns pray three times a day and celebrate the Shabbat. Miriam hides her hair and alternates between wearing a wig and a beret in order to comply with Jewish law requirements for married women. Elegant and sparkling, the couple is happy to appear, he with a large black hat, she with chaste dresses with tight collars. ” In France, specifies Emile, the current of modern orthodoxy responds to a need of part of the Jewish community, in particular in openness to society, while promoting 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” wishing to teach young overqualified 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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