Alain Finkielkraut

Who is Alain Finkielkraut?

Alain Finkielkraut is a French essayist. He currently teaches at the École Polytechnique as professor of the "history of ideas and modernity" in the department of humanities and social sciences. Author of a number of books, Finkielkraut is among some of France's public intellectuals who often appear on talk shows and publish columns in the French media. Finkielkraut advocates what in France is known as a humanist standpoint; although his self-declared humanism has been challenged at many times during his career and frequently deemed quite the opposite of humanism, especially by anti-conservative and liberal activists; he defines himself as "at the same time classical and romantic".

In 2010, he was involved in founding JCall, advocacy group based in Europe to lobby the European Parliament on foreign policy issues concerning the Middle East. He is a strong supporter of Israel.