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Le Chat du Rabbin #5

Jérusalem d'Afrique

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Alors que Zlabya s'ennuie au côté de son époux, le rabbin reçoit une caisse contenant un peintre russe voulant parcourir l'Afrique pour retrouver la douzième tribu d'Israël.

Cinquième tome du best seller de Joann Sfar, Jérusalem d'Afrique est un éblouissant voyage dans une Afrique sublimée, croisement improbable sur plus de 80 pages entre Tintin au Congo et les chefs-d'oeuvre d'Albert Cohen. Et en plus le chat reparle.

84 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

2 people are currently reading
119 people want to read

About the author

Joann Sfar

485 books508 followers
Joann Sfar (born August 28, 1971 in Nice) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, and film director.

Sfar is considered one of the most important artists of the new wave of Franco-Belgian comics. Many of his comics were published by L'Association which was founded in 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu and six other artists. He also worked together with many of the new movement's main artists, e.g. David B. and Lewis Trondheim. The Donjon series which he created with Trondheim has a cult following in many countries.

Some of his comics are inspired by his Jewish heritage as the son of Jewish parents (an Ashkenazi mother and a Sephardic father). He himself says that there is Ashkenazi humor in his Professeur Bell series (loosely based on Joseph Bell), whereas Le chat du rabbin is clearly inspired by his Sephardic side. Les olives noires is a series about a Jewish child in Israel at the time of Jesus. Like Le chat du rabbin, the series contains a lot of historical and theological information.

His main influences are Fred and André Franquin as well as Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Will Eisner, Hugo Pratt and John Buscema.

From 2009 to 2010, Sfar wrote and directed 'Serge Gainsbourgh: Une Vie Heroique', a biopic of the notorious French songwriter, of whom Sfar is a self-confessed fanatic. The film, which draws substantially on Sfar's abilities as a comic book artist through its extensive use of fantasy artwork, animation and puppetry, was released in 2010 to general critical acclaim.

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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
Profile Image for Annetius.
357 reviews117 followers
January 12, 2021
Σούπερ ευχάριστο διάλειμμα ανάμεσα στη λογοτεχνία, με ένα άλμπουμ του αγαπημένου Τζόαν Σφαρ και τον πανέξυπνο γάτο του ραβίνου. Μετά τον τόμο 1 και 2, μεταπήδησα στον 5, δεν ξέρω πώς και γιατί έχω τον 5 αλλά όχι τους 3 και 4, αναρχία στη σειρά των σίκουελ, γιατί όχι, αφού πρόκειται για αυτοτελείς ιστορίες.

Το σχέδιο του Σφαρ είναι ρυτιδωμένο, λες και έχει ένα ελαφρύ Πάρκινσον, τρεμουλιαστό, νευρικό, ζωντανό! Ο γάτος του ραβίνου έχει λαλιά γιατί κατάπιε έναν παπαγάλο και οι μόνοι που μπορούν ακούσουν τι λέει είναι το αφεντικό του, ο ραβίνος, και η κόρη του ραβίνου Ζλάμπια, στην οποία ο γάτος έχει απόλυτη αδυναμία -φυσικά, είναι μια κούκλα με εκρηκτική προσωπικότητα, ο γάτος δεν είναι χαζός.. Βάλτε με το νου σας τι μπορεί να βγαίνει από το στόμα ενός γατιού.. Φυσικά μόνο πνευματώδες, σπαρταριστό, τσούγδικο (είπαμε: τσουχτερό που γδέρνει και λίγο) χιούμορ. Το σενάριο σε αυτό το τεύχος είναι η συνεύρεση ενός άθεου Ρώσου κομμουνιστή, του εβραίου ραβίνου -βασικού πρωταγωνιστή της σειράς, ενός καθολικού χριστιανού και ενός μωαμεθανού. Θρησκείες και εθιμοτυπίες τους μπλέκονται και μένει το ερώτημα του βαθμού αποδοχής που έχει ο ένας για τον Άλλον, τον διαφορετικό. Τόπος όλης της σειράς είναι κατά κύριο λόγο το Αλγέρι, ενώ εδώ όλος αυτός ο συρφετός διασχίζει με ένα παλιό φορτηγάκι Σιτροέν, έναν γάϊδαρο και τον γάτο κατά πόδας τις ερήμους της Αφρικής για να βρουν… την Ιερουσαλήμ της Αφρικής! Αυτοί που καταφέρνουν τελικά να φτάσουν σε αυτό το ιδιαίτερο μέρος, ανακαλύπτουν τον μεγαλόσωμο μαύρο εβραϊκό πληθυσμό να τους κοιτά με μισό μάτι, πιστεύοντας ότι για κανέναν λόγο οι εβραίοι δεν μπορεί να είναι λευκοί!

*extra τσαχπινιά η εμφάνιση του Τεντέν!
Profile Image for Lotte.
414 reviews15 followers
February 22, 2020
Take a good look at the cover. What does it remind you of? Right, Tintin in Africa. This is not a parody as such, although Sfar doesn't hold back to mock Tintin... and almost everyone else in the end. This is the strength of these series: a light, humorous exploration of the coexistence of worshippers of different religions.

This book could also start off as a joke: a Sephardic Jew, an Ashkenazic Jew, an atheist Russian and a Muslim go into the desert ...

We also get an interesting insight in the community of Ethiopian Jews: the Beta Israel (called Falash Mra in this book).
Profile Image for Sara.
98 reviews
March 4, 2021
Me quedo con la intención de Joann Sfar: "Durante mucho tiempo he pensado que era superfluo hacer un álbum contra el racismo. Me parecía demasiado obvio, que no hacía falta hundir puertas abiertas. Parece que los tiempos cambian. Ya se ha dicho todo, sin duda, pero como nadie escucha, hace falta volver a empezar".
Profile Image for Dariusz Płochocki.
449 reviews25 followers
March 26, 2019
Należy uważać na skrzynie przychodzące z dalekiej Rosji do Algieru, bo nigdy nie wiemy co mogą w sobie skrywać. Tym razem mamy nowe postacie z dalekiego Aszkenazu i podróż po kolonialnej Afryce samochodem marki Citroen z carskim orłem i gwiazdą Dawida. A i kot, kot jeszcze nie powiedział ostatniego słowa.
Profile Image for Ilana (illi69).
630 reviews190 followers
December 23, 2018
When the rabbi's son-in-law discovers a man in a crate containing a shipment of books from Russia he's been expecting, everyone fears the worst—is the man dead? It turns out the man is alive, but perhaps worse for the Rabbi, he's a Russian Jew who is an artist and talks (Russian) incessantly. Only one person understands him, and that is the cat (cats are people too, of course). The artist is dismayed to find out that he hasn't landed in Ethiopia where he thought his container was headed to, as he has his heart set on going to an obscure little place called Jerusalem, where a tribe of black Jews has been living in seclusion since time immemorial. A great finish to this series, but did it really have to end? — June 2011
Profile Image for Pascal.
910 reviews1 follower
December 15, 2012
A la croisée des chemins d'Afrique et des religions (l'Islam, la Chretienté et bien sûr le Judaïsme)...et le detournement de ces religions par les hommes...Une aventure palpitante qui permet au passage d'égratigner Tintin au Congo... A lire!
Profile Image for Frank.
849 reviews44 followers
April 24, 2022
A bit of mixed bag this. It is longer than the previous volumes, and I'm not sure this is because Sfar had more to tell or because he didn't find a satisfying way to tell it. Actually, in the second half of the album I'm not quite sure *what* it is he wants to tell (apart from a general Alle Menschen Brüder-type of message that underpins the entire series' ethos anyway).
Having said that, the first half of the story is as good as anything I've read in this series, if not better. The arrival of a Russian refugee in a box full of books, the quarrels the rabbi and his son-in-law have about what to do with this person (whom they initially think is a corpse), this is great stuff. But when they start off into the desert with another Russian exile who has a screw loose, and they encounter some Arabian nomads in the desert, and it leads to real bloodshed... I don't know. It seemed a little out of touch with the relatively easygoing humanism of the series so far. You get that Sfar is probably trying to convey some kind of allegory reflecting the horrors of 20th century history... but I'm not sure it works.
Then again, most artists would want to be able to produce something that ‘doesn't work’ at *this* level...
Profile Image for Diana.
302 reviews7 followers
November 12, 2022
«Los que se acuestan temprano creen que los barcos sólo amarran durante el día. En realidad, la vida continúa igual bajo la luz de la Luna.»

El volumen que menos me ha gustado de los que llevo leídos de esta serie. Quizá por ser el más largo -el doble que los anteriores-; perdió la ligereza que tanto agradecía en los precedentes.
Profile Image for Emma.
1,623 reviews
August 8, 2024
Un album très agréable, souvent drôle, qui nous emmène en voyage à travers l'Afrique, en se moquant allègrement au passage de Tintin au Congo, ce que j'ai trouvé assez jubilatoire.

Le message d'amitié entre les hommes qui était déjà présent dans les tomes précédents reste central dans celui-ci.
Profile Image for M-AY.
296 reviews9 followers
February 24, 2019
Rares sont les récits qui abordent avec autant d'intelligence les questions de religion, de préjugés et d'intolérance entre les peuples... Pardon, entre les Hommes... Non, juste d'intolérance tout court.
Profile Image for David.
834 reviews9 followers
June 30, 2021
Aventure rocambolesque et genialissime <3
655 reviews4 followers
December 12, 2021
J'aime beaucoup les confrontations entre le rabbin pragmatique, son cousin imam qui l'est tout autant, et les divers extrémistes et fondamentalistes de tout acabit.
Profile Image for Keith Sickle.
Author 4 books52 followers
November 19, 2022
This book was just ok. I love the cat but the story was not that interesting.
Profile Image for Clodjee.
556 reviews8 followers
July 3, 2017
Avec ce volume on revient sur l'histoire qui a été adapté en animation 3D. C'est beaucoup mieux (l'histoire mais pas le dessin, évidemment).

Cet album, plus volumineux que les autres, rattrape bien l'ennui provoqué par les deux précédents. Il n'a pas la nouveauté ou la fraîcheur du tout premier volume mais c'est toute de même bien écrit, très amusant et même les dessins commençaient à me plaire. Ça mérite certainement la lecture.

Voir mon commentaire complet sur : http://clodjee.blogspot.ca/2015/01/le...
Profile Image for Sylvie.
603 reviews22 followers
February 10, 2015
This is probably the best album after the first one. However, it is almost double the length of the others and I think it should have been broken into two volumes—the first half being the arrival of the Russian and the second being the journey through Africa. Perhaps then the abrupt ending could have been avoided. Nevertheless, it was very funny; I loved the encounter with Tintin!
Profile Image for Tina.
1,257 reviews47 followers
February 3, 2017
There is everything to love about this series.
Colourful, intelligent, cleverly amusing, real and human...things we often all forget to be these days.

Plenty of simple, contradictory and imperfect wisdom.
Thought provoking...
Mon chat me manque.
Profile Image for Céline FrenchAlps.
481 reviews
January 25, 2018
Dommage, un personnage de BD que j'aime beaucoup se trouve rabaissé...
Heureusement, le livre traite aussi des religions et de leur coexistence.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews

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