Paris massacre: the family curse of the Jewish victim of Islamic terror

Jewish artist Georges Wolinsky (80), a living classic of modern caricature art, became one of the 12 victims of the shooting by Islamists of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo magazine on January 7 in Paris.

Volinsky was born in 1934 in Tunisia to Lola Bamberon, a Tunisian Jew, and Siegfried Volinsky, a Jew from Poland. The roots of the father's family came from western Ukraine (Volyn).

Georges Wolinsky and his mother moved to France in 1946. He served in the French army, in a remote garrison in the Algerian Sahara. While serving in the military in the mid-1950s, he came across the satirical magazine Harakiri, published by the French artist of Polish-Jewish origin Roland Topor. Wolinsky soon began sending Topor his first cartoons. This is how his career as an artist began.

Georges Wolinsky never hid his Jewish origin. He became the graphic designer for the French version of the 1965 international bestseller How to Be a Jewish Mother, as well as Thank You Hanukkah Harry, in which the hero bravely conquers climate change and other environmental crises.

In 2005, Georges Volinski became a Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor.

Despite the sparkling humor of his cartoons, Georges Wolinsky was always burdened by the “family curse.” His father, Siegfried Wolinsky, opened a metal processing business in Tunisia in the early 1930s, but in 1936 the elder Wolinsky was killed by a fired and angry Arab employee. And although Georges was only a baby at the time, he later told his wife: “The ghost of my father has haunted me all my life.” On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, Georges was shot by Arab terrorist fanatics in the center of Paris.