When Charlie Hebdo Lampooned Jews Too

By Anne Cohen January 7, 2015

On January 7, three gunmen open fired at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, including two police officers. Four of France’s most celebrated cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Wolinski and Tignous, were among the victims. It’s easy to speculate about what sparked this deadly attack. Charlie Hebdo wasn’t exactly known for its tact or subtlety — in November 2011, the publication’s offices were firebombed a day after publishing a cartoon depicting the prophet Mohammed.

But it would be a mistake to think that the popular magazine only targeted Islam. It thumbed its nose at everyone, reflecting mostly the bad and the ugly, but also the good, of French society as a whole — Jews included. Here are a couple of examples:

Charlie Hebdo/ via Daily Beast

An Orthodox Jew, the Pope and an Imam yell: “Charlie Hebdo must be veiled!”

Charlie Hebdo/ via Daily Beast

In this parody of the hit French film “Les Intouchables” (The Untouchables) an Orthodox Jew pushes around the prophet Mohammed. The text reads: “Don’t make fun.”

Charlie Hebdo

This series called “The Torah Illustrated by Charb,” makes light of the Jewish commandments. This particular cartoon reads: 68. “Men will not shave the hair on the sides of their heads.” The man in the cartoon says: “You can shave your brains but not these!”

Charlie Hebdo/ via Daily Beast

Playing off John Galliano’s anti-Semitic rant in a Paris cafe, this cover has extreme right Front National leader Marine LePen modeling the designer’s latest collection — note the German milkmaid outfit…

Charlie Hebdo/ via Daily Beast

Charlie Hebdo acknowledged Dominique Strauss Kahn’s arrest on allegations of sexual assault by depicting him as a newly elected French president, parading under a shower of condoms.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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