"Few CD companies might be expected to issue a four disc set of 30-year-old political speeches, but this is just what the enterprising small label Frémeaux & Associés has done with Robert Badinter’s 1981 French National Assembly oratory. Badinter, who appeared in the 2007 documentary “Being Jewish in France,” was Justice Minister in 1981, when France repealed the death penalty. His eloquent oratory was no small part of the momentous outcome. Seconded by the brilliant French lawyer and activist Gisèle Halimi, of Tunisian Jewish origin, Badinter fervently pointed out that judicial errors are made, and innocent prisoners put to death. Recently, Badinter came forward with detailed personal reminiscences of his wartime experiences in “Trials of Justice,” a biography from Les éditions du Toucan by historian and sociologist Pauline Dreyfus.
(...) Torrès, who affectionately called Badinter “my studious little rabbi,” was firmly opposed to the death penalty, and doubtless influenced his brilliant pupil. In addition to his legal and political career, Badinter has authored two illuminating histories, “Free and Equal: Emancipation of the Jews (1789-1791)” and “Ordinary antisemitism: Vichy and Jewish Lawyers (1940-1944),” both from Fayard. Also a defender of gay rights, Badinter wrote a play defending Oscar Wilde, published in 1995 by Actes Sud éditions."
by Benjamin IVRY - THE ARTY SEMITE
(...) Torrès, who affectionately called Badinter “my studious little rabbi,” was firmly opposed to the death penalty, and doubtless influenced his brilliant pupil. In addition to his legal and political career, Badinter has authored two illuminating histories, “Free and Equal: Emancipation of the Jews (1789-1791)” and “Ordinary antisemitism: Vichy and Jewish Lawyers (1940-1944),” both from Fayard. Also a defender of gay rights, Badinter wrote a play defending Oscar Wilde, published in 1995 by Actes Sud éditions."
by Benjamin IVRY - THE ARTY SEMITE
