France's Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim is a thief. Bernheim has now admitted that the plagiarism found by a French blogger in his latest book, Forty Jewish Meditations, is, in fact, plagiarism after all.
France's Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim
Chief Rabbi Of France Caught Plagiarizing Large Sections Of Book
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
France's Chief Rabbi Gilles Bernheim is a thief.
Bernheim has now admitted that the plagiarism found by a French blogger in his latest book, Forty Jewish Meditations, is, in fact, plagiarism after all, the JTA reported.
In a statement released yesterday, Bernheim admitted that parts of the book were taken from other writers without attribution.
But Bernheim blamed his anonymous ghostwriter for the thefts.
“I have been fooled. However, I am responsible. I apologize to the authors whose texts have been copied, to the people who have read these 'meditations' and to my publisher who was not informed of the existence of an outsider [ghostwriter],” Bernheim wrote. Bernheim also asked for the book to be removed from bookstore shelves and from his bibliography.
At first, Bernheim tried to blame one of the people he stole from, retelling events as if philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard had plagiarized him [Bernheim] by claiming that some of the sections of his [Bernheim’s] book were transcripts of lectures Bernheim gave while he was a chaplain for French Jewish students in the 1980s. Bernheim claimed the classes were frequently tape recorded by students. He also claimed that copies of his personal lecture notes were handed out at each lecture – implying that Lyotard had obtained a copy of those notes and/or a recording and used them without attribution.
Bernheim’s version was contradicted by the journalist who interviewed Lyotard and published what Bernheim was implying was Lyotard’s plagiarism. She insisted that the philosopher answered her questions without looking at any notes, meaning the words he spoke – often at great length – were his own.
Then a senior lecturer at Paris 8 University found more extended passages in Bernheim’s book that appeared to be plagiarized from the works of others, including from Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, Jean-Marie Domenach and Charles Dobzynski, prompting Bernheim to issue his statement admitting guilt but blaming his anonymous ghostwriter.
A Bernheim article against homosexualoity was recently cited by the outgoing Pope and used in the Church's struggle against gay marriage and civil unions.