The scene lasted just a few seconds, but it immediately provoked outcry throughout the political spectrum. In a video shared on social media by Rabbi Mendel Samama, the chief rabbi of France, Haïm Korsia, is seen lighting a Hanukkah candle on the first day of the Jewish holiday. A traditional Jewish song is then sung.
The issue is that the scene took place in the Elysée Palace, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron, at the end of a meeting organized on the evening of Thursday, December 7, between himself and members of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER).
Two days before the anniversary of the 1905 law separating the church and the state, many saw this as a clear breach of France's strict principle of secularism, or laïcité, from the highest office of the Republic.
Historique !
— Mendel Samama (@EURORabbi) December 7, 2023
Allumage de la 1ere bougie de #Hanouka au Palais de @Elysee par le Grand Rabbin de France @HaimKorsia avec @EmmanuelMacron
La petite lumière chasse beaucoup d’obscurité !@PinchasRabbi @ElieKorchia pic.twitter.com/or58WGDhKY
Opponents on all sides were quick to criticize Macron. "On Saturday, we'll be celebrating the anniversary of the 1905 law on the separation of the church and the state. Tonight, Macron is trampling it by organizing a religious ceremony at the Elysée," blasted Manuel Bompard of the radical left La France Insoumise party, on X, castigating an "unforgivable political error." "The Elysée is not a place of worship (...) We don't compromise with laïcité," said the Socialist president of the Occitania region, Carole Delga, also on X.
"How can one refuse to take part in a civic march against anti-Semitism on the incongruous and fallacious grounds of safeguarding national unity, and celebrate a religious festival within the presidential palace? To my knowledge, this is a first. It's contrary to secularism," said David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes, from the right-wing Les Républicains party.
Macron defended himself, questioned on the subject during a visit to Notre-Dame Cathedral: "If the president of the Republic had lent himself to a gesture of worship, or taken part in a ceremony, it wouldn't be respectful of secularism. But that didn't happen." Declaring that he had made a gesture towards the Jewish community, against a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism, he called for "common sense and goodwill." Secularism "is not about erasing religions or interfering with them; it's a law of freedom," he added.
The president emphasized that it was not a "ceremony" that was organized at the Elysée, but that it was the presentation of the CER's annual Lord-Jakobovits Prize, which rewards the fight against anti-Semitism and the safeguarding of religious freedoms. Angela Merkel received it in 2013, as did King Felipe of Spain in 2016.
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