Esther Benbassa

 ( 1950 Births ) 

Benbassa graduated from Tel Aviv University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1972, supporting her education by working in the tourism industry. She moved to France with a scholarship later that year and obtained a master's degree in modern literature from Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis in 1973. In 1974, Benbassa became a French citizen by marriage, making her a triple citizen of France, Israel and Turkey. She received her Certificate of Aptitude for Secondary School Teachers (CAPES) in 1975 and taught in a lycée from 1975 to 1988. This qualification was followed by a diploma in Turkish language from the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in 1982 and a doctorate in literature and the human and social sciences from Paris 8 in 1987. Benbassa achieved the latter by completing a Thesis titled "Chaim Nahum, Last Great Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1920)" with Louis Bazin as her doctoral adviser. She had previously drafted a dissertation about the Paris Commune.

Benbassa conducted her postdoctoral studies in the department of Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1988 to 1989.

In 2012, Benbassa began to advocate for the right of French expatriates to vote in French elections.

Benbassa was the rapporteur for a bill extending the statute of limitations for discriminatory remarks of a Homophobia, Sexism or Ableism character and thereby align it with laws surrounding racial, ethnic or religious discrimination. The bill was unanimously passed into law by the Senate on 30 January 2013. On 28 March 2013, the Senate also passed a law aiming to end public solicitation of sex workers, which Benbassa had introduced in the autumn of 2012.

At Benbassa's urging, the Senate laws committee created a fact-finding mission on racial, ethnic and religious discrimination in the autumn of 2012. She served alongside Jean-René Lecerf of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) as the mission's co-rapporteur. Their final report, presented in November 2014, was titled "The Fight Against Discrimination: From Incantation to Action." It included twelve proposals, among them the introduction of a census question on the birth country of one's ancestors and respondents' previous nationalities "in order to obtain measurable findings on the extent of discrimination and its occurrences." Malika Sorel, former member of the High Council for Integration, criticized the proposals as "dangerous" and conducive to the "exacerbation of tensions in our nation."

In October 2013, in response to the Dibrani case involving the arrest of an illegal immigrant child during a field trip and their immediate deportation, Benbassa commented: "I, who thought France had not forgotten its sombre history, was far from imagining that in 2013, as an official elected by the people, would be the witness to a police roundup. Because yes, it must be made clear that this was a roundup." Benbassa's comments were criticized by philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, who argued that "the constant reference to the Shoah—and I choose my words carefully here—is ignoble.""La référence constante à la Shoah, je pèse mes mots, est ignoble. C’est une honte absolue. Ces références à la Shoah sont innommables. La gauche n’est pas obligée d’être bête et de s’enthousiasmer de voir les jeunes devenir les gardes rouges de l’idiotie compassionnelle," BFM TV. Journalist Benoît Rayski argued that her statement summarized "all the most common talking points of supposedly anti-racist indignation."

In February 2014, Benbassa was named vice-president of a Senate special committee examining a bill that would empower efforts to end sex work. It was in this position that she repeatedly expressed her opposition to the proposed punishment of the clients of sex workers.

Benbassa authored the first ever French bill for the legalization of cannabis and introduced it in the Senate in January 2014. The legislation was debated until April 2015, when it was rejected. In response, Benbassa organized a Senate conference in October 2016 with the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts's chair of addiction studies, titled "Legalization of Cannabis: Is Europe Condemned to an Impasse?"

Benbassa joined several other senators in introducing a resolution urging other branches of the French government to recognize the State of Palestine, passing in December 2014. She also drafted a resolution for the protection of environmental migrants, which the Senate passed in October 2015.

In March 2016, Benbassa led the laws committee in establishing a fact-finding mission on deradicalization, for which she served as co-rapporteur along with Catherine Troendlé of The Republicans (LR). They then published a report on the topic.

In April 2016, Benbassa again sparked controversy after writing an editorial in Libération titled "The Hijab is not more alienating than the miniskirt".

During the 2017 French Senate elections, Benbassa headed the EELV list in Paris and was elected for a second term on 24 September 2017. On 3 October, she joined the Communist, Republican, Citizen and Environmentalist group. Since then, Benbasssa has sat on the constitutional law, legislation, universal suffrage, regulations and general administration committee and has served as the vice-president of the senatorial delegation to Overseas France.

During her second term, Benbassa has spoken on various issues: she joined the yellow vest protesters; advocated for migrants; denounced living conditions in French prisons, particularly for minors; lobbied against gender-based and sexual violence, especially in the political world and planned to introduce legislation on animal welfare. In November 2019, Benbassa took part in a protest against Islamophobia organized by several parties and civil society organizations. Controversy arose once more after she published a photograph of herself at the demonstrations accompanied by participants (among them a young girl) wearing a yellow, five-pointed star and a crescent moon of the same colour, all labelled with the English word "Muslim." This provoked a wave of allegations of diminishing the The Holocaust's importance by comparing it to Islamophobia, noting the star's resemblance to the yellow badge. The magazine Marianne criticized Benbassa for taking advantage of a child for political purposes, arguing that "in Islamism processions, as in the protest, children are forced into the propaganda of adults and wear slogans that they cannot understand. This is a violation of the charter on the rights of the child." On 18 November, HuffPost published an editorial supporting Benbassa titled "Esther Benbassa Honours the Republic" and signed by over 150 political figures including academics, activists and left-wing political officials.

In October 2020, Benbassa became the secretary of the Senate and vice-president of the EELV group. She was expelled from the group on 15 September 2021 following allegations of workplace bullying and consequently became a member of the administrative group of senators not appearing on the list of any group (RASNAG).

During the 2022 French presidential election, Benbassa gave her sponsorship to Hélène Thouy.

Benbassa disputed the version of events published by the newspaper, but nonetheless acknowledged her "mood swings" and apologized to "those that she hurt."

In September 2021, Benbassa was expelled from the Senate EELV group, with the latter explaining that "Mrs. Benbassa has not disputed some of the witnesses' accounts and has not, to this day, attempted to sue the accusers for defamation." The senator responded in a press release denouncing the "sham of internal procedures" that made a "farce of due process." She then left EELV that December.

Benbassa identifies as an Atheism.

• Knight of the National Order of Merit, 2005
• Seligmann Prize Against Racism, Injustice and Intolerance, 2008
• Prix Guizot bronze medal by the French Academy for La Souffrance comme identité, 2011
• Senator of the Year for 2017 by Le Trombinoscope, 2018

• Haim Nahum. A Sephardic Rabbi in Politics, 1892-1923, Tuscaloosa, The University of Alabama Press, 1995.
• A Sephardi Life in Southeastern Europe. The Autobiography and Journal of Gabriel Arié, 1863-1939, Seattle & London, University of Washington Press, 1998 (with Aron Rodrigue).
• History of Sephardic Jewry, XIVth-XXth Centuries, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2000 (with A. Rodrigue).
• The Jews of France. A History from Antiquity to the Present, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1999, 2nd ed. (softcover), 2001.
• Israël, the Impossible Land, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2003 (with Jean-Christophe Attias).
• The Jews and their Future. A Conversation on Jewish Identities, London, Zed Books, 2004 (with J.-C. Attias).
• The Jew and the Other, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2004 (with J.-C. Attias).
• Suffering as Identity, London – New-York, Verso, 2010.

In French

• Un grand rabbin sépharade en politique, 1892-1923, Paris, Presses du CNRS, 1990.
• Une diaspora sépharade en transition (Istanbul, xix^e – xx^e siècles), Paris, Cerf, 1993.
• Histoire des Juifs de France, Paris, Seuil, coll. Points Histoire, 2nd revised edition, 2000.
• La République face à ses minorités. Les Juifs hier, les musulmans aujourd'hui, Paris, Mille et une nuits/Fayard, 2004.
• La Souffrance comme identité, Paris, Fayard, 2007. 2nd edition, Hachette, coll. Pluriel, 2010.
• Être juif après Gaza, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2009.
• De l'impossibilité de devenir français. Nos nouvelles mythologies nationales, Paris, Les Liens qui Libèrent, 2012.
• Égarements d'une cosmopolite, Paris, Bourin Éditeur, 2012.
• Istanbul la Sépharade, Paris, CNRS éditions, 2015.
• Vendredi noir et nuits blanches, Paris, Lattès, 2016.

With Aron Rodrigue

• Une vie judéo-espagnole à l'Est : Gabriel Arié, Paris, Cerf, 1992.
• Histoire des Juifs sépharades. De Tolède à Salonique, Paris, Seuil, 2002.

With Jean-Christophe Attias

• Dictionnaire de civilisation juive, Paris, Larousse-Bordas, 1997. 2nd edition, 1998.
• Israël, la terre et le sacré, Paris, Flammarion, 1998. 2nd edition., 2001.
• Les Juifs ont-ils un avenir ?, 2nd edition., Paris, Hachette, 2002.
• Le Juif et l'Autre, Gordes, Le Relié, 2001.
• Petite Histoire du judaïsme, Paris, Librio, 2007.
• Dictionnaire des mondes juifs, Paris, Larousse, 2008.

Editor

• Mémoires juives d'Espagne et du Portugal, Paris, Publisud, 1996.
• Transmission et passages en monde juif, Paris, Publisud, 1997.
• La haine de soi. Difficiles identités, Bruxelles, Complexe, 2000 (with Jean-Christophe Attias).
• L'Europe et les Juifs, Genève, Labor et Fides, 2002 (with Pierre Gisel).
• Les Sépharades en littérature. Un parcours millénaire, Paris, Presses de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2005.
• Itinéraires sépharades. Complexité et diversité des identités, Paris, Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2010.
• Dictionnaire des racismes, de l’exclusion et des discriminations, Paris, Larousse, 2010.
• Israël-Palestine. Les enjeux d’un conflit, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2010.
• La France en situation postcoloniale ?, Mouvements (septembre 2011).
• Minorités visibles en politique, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2011.
• Encyclopédie des religions, Paris, Fayard/Pluriel, 2012 (with Jean-Christophe Attias)
• Salonique, ville juive, ville ottomane, ville grecque, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2014.
• Dans les quartiers, l’égalité c’est maintenant ! Livre blanc, Paris, Le Pari(s) du Vivre-Ensemble, 2014 (with Jean-Christophe Attias).
• Juifs et musulmans. Retissons les liens!, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2015 (with Jean-Christophe Attias).
• Les Sépharades. Histoire et culture du Moyen Âge à nos jours, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2016.
• Nouvelles relégations territoriales, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2017 (with Jean-Christophe Attias).
• Violences sexistes et sexuelles en politique, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2018.
• Nous et les animaux, Paris, Les Petits Matins, 2020.

• Official website
• Official political website