Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

French Jew Picked To Lead UNESCO After Israel And U.S. Bolt

The United Nations’ cultural agency has selected France’s Audrey Azoulay as its new director general, two diplomatic sources said on Friday.

UNESCO’s executive board voted 30 to 28 in favour of Azoulay, a former French culture minister, against Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari.

It will now be put forward for approval to UNESCO’s 195 members on Nov. 10.

The move comes just a day after the U.S. and Israel both announced plans to withdraw from the agency.

Azoulay was born in Paris to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira. Her father is André Azoulay, an adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.