Terry Firma

As we’ve seen, France’s highest Jewish religious authority, Grand Rabbi Gilles Bernheim, got in hot water last week when it emerged that he’d

• plagiarized a deceased author, then

• tried in vain to make it seem that the dead guy had plagiarized him, then

• blamed the whole affair on either a careless student assistant or a ghostwriter.

Classy!

But over the weekend, the story got even better. Via Agence France Presse:

Bernheim’s Who’s Who entry, based on information he provided, says he was awarded from Sorbonne University an “agrégation de philosophie”, a prestigious but extremely difficult to obtain achievement that permits the teaching of philosophy in French institutions. However university “agrégation” lists from 1972 to 2000 have no entry for Bernheim. The head of the association managing the lists, Blanche Lochmann, said the Grand Rabbi’s name was not in the agrégation lists kept by the French education ministry either. “It is very difficult for a public figure to try to fool people as to whether he has an agrégation,” she said. “This is the first instance that is so blatant.” Bernheim’s spokesman, Rabbi Moche Lewin, told AFP that the Grand Rabbi was not available to respond to the latest developments in the scandal.

[image via Jean Marc Morandini]