Tribute to René-Samuel Sirat, former Chief Rabbi of France and professor at Inalco from 1959 to 1995

René-Samuel SIRAT (Bône, 1930 - Jerusalem, 2023)

Born on November 13, 1930 in Bône (now Annaba), Algeria, René-Samuel Sirat moved to mainland France in 1946 to study at the Rabbinical Seminary. He became rabbi of Clermont-Ferrand in 1952, then of Toulouse. Elected Chief Rabbi of France in 1980, he succeeded Jacob Kaplan a few months later. He held this position for seven years, but decided not to stand for re-election at the end of his first term.

Parallel to his rabbinical studies, he pursued university studies in Hebrew literature and linguistics.

Between 1973 and 1980, he was in charge of the Hebrew language teaching mission of the French National Education Inspectorate. At the same time, he chaired the CAPES and agrégation juries. For almost thirty years, he was a professor at Inalco, where he headed the Hebraic and Jewish Studies section, whose dynamism has grown steadily over the years. He also gave impetus to the activities of the Centre de documentation et de recherche, the organization of study days and colloquia, and the publication of the journal Yod. Between 1989 and 1992, he was director of the Near and Middle East department.

In 1990, he founded the Institut Rachi in Troyes, a center for study and research.

A man of great culture and a warm humanist, René-Samuel Sirat was a man of dialogue and peace. A fervent supporter of inter-religious dialogue, he was appointed co-moderator of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, founded in 1986. That same year, and again in 1993, he took part in the first "Rencontres des religions pour la paix" at the invitation of Pope John Paul II. In 1999, he worked with Joseph Ratzinger, the future Benedict XVI, to set up the "Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue" in Geneva. His open-mindedness was never synonymous with easy compromise, as demonstrated by his active involvement in the Auschwitz Carmel affair from 1985 onwards.

René-Samuel Sirat died on February 10, 2023 in Jerusalem, where he had lived for some ten years.

In addition to numerous articles, he is notably the author of:
La Joie austère (with Emmanuel Hirsch), Paris, Bayard, 1990
La Tendresse de Dieu, Paris, Nil, 1996
Juifs, chrétiens, musulmans : readings that gather, readings that separate (with Mgr de Berranger and Youssef Seddik), Paris, Bayard, 2007
L'Héritage de Rachi, Paris, éditions de l'Éclat, 2014
Itinéraire d'un enfant juif d'Algérie, Paris, Albin Michel, 2020.