Original version

BBC World Service Online

Heart and Soul

Documentaries

Religion & Ethics

Personal approaches to spirituality from around the world.

Heart and Soul: Faith and Food: Faith and Food: The Jewish Community of Paris

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Hardeep Singh Kohli and Serge Benheim; a member of the Parisian Jewish community

10/04/2015 GMT

Faith and Food: The Jewish Community of Paris

Faith and Food

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Faith and Food, Faith and Food: The Jewish Community of Paris

The mix of faith and food in Jewish Paris

Hardeep Singh Kohli samples the mix of faith and food in Jewish Paris

Hardeep Singh Kohli explores the relationship between food and the major faiths and what the feasts, the diets and the communal meals tell us about spirituality. In this third and final episode, Hardeep travels to Paris in France, considered to be the gastronomic capital of the world.

Jews have a 2000-year-old history in Paris and on the surface it appears Jewish life is very much engrained alongside French culture itself. Hardeep heads to the Jewish quarter of the city – home to bagel shops, kosher charcuteries and falafel restaurants – to find a community that feels under siege.

As Hardeep wanders around the streets he finds synagogues and schools are under 24-hour armed guard and more Jews in Paris wanting to make Aliyah and leave the country to head to Israel. In 2014, 7000 Jews left France, more than double the number in the previous year. As Hardeep investigates the nature of modern day anti-Semitism in France, he explores the relationship Parisian Jews have with food. What role do communal meals play for a community that feels under attack? What is the role of the Seder meal as Passover comes to an end? 

Plus, he questions the success of French secularism, or laïcité, and learns how many Jews cannot see a future for themselves in France – a country which prides itself on liberty and fraternity.

Heart and Soul: Faith and Food

BBC World Service

Hardeep Singh Kohli explores the relationship between religion and food in Paris - for many the world's gastronomic capital.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Heart and Soul

Faith and Food

Faith and Food: The Jewish Community of Paris

Genres

Formats

Brand

Series

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service