France’s Chief Rabbi, Haim Korsia, has urged Jews to work in co-operation with Muslims to combat nationalism in France and across Europe.

Against the backdrop of Emmanuel Macron’s election victory over nationalist Marine Le Pen, Korsia urged the Jewish communities to join forces with Muslims in “opposing the far-right” political forces in the country. Rabbi Korsia had endorsed former Rothschild banker Macron for the French presidency the previous week, with the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions officially boycotting both nationalist Marine Le Pen and the far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round.

In this latest rally against nationalism, Rabbi Korsia said “It is very important that we work also with the Muslims against National Front”. The comments come as part of a wider trend of Jewish and Muslim organisations across Europe joining forces to oppose restrictions on their religious practises, such as the ritual slaughter of animals (Halal/Kosher), a practise that most sane Europeans find backward and barbaric.

In return for co-operation on the issue of religious slaughter, Jews are in turn assisting Muslims in lobbying against measures against religious symbolism in public, such as a ban on the burka that has been incorporated into law by various European states, most recently Austria.

This comes as part of a wider effort by European Jewry to work with Muslims to address their minority grievances across the continent. Earlier this year, the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, called for solidarity with Muslims in what he described as “growing hostility” towards minority religious groups. In an admission of the Jewish effort behind the open borders movement, Goldschmidt stated that the recent nationalistic, anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe is a threat to European Jewry.

In 2016, Rabbi Goldschmidt gave an interview on Russia Today, in which he called for Jews to show solidarity with “their Muslim brothers in the fight against the old Europe”:

