24 Days: The Kidnapping and Murder of Ilan Halimi

We have Ilan  . . . We demand 450,000 euros to release him alive . . .

Why would anybody kidnap a young cell-phone salesman living with his mother and sisteer in a working class neighborhood in Paris? In this searing memoir, Ilan Halimi's mohter, Ruth, recounts the twenty-four days of her son's captivity, as the French police scramble to find him while his kidnappers' messages grow more erratic and the hreats against him more dire.

As other attempted kidnappings come to light, she suddenly realizes what these cases have in common: all the intended victims are Jewish.

24 Days is a wake-up call to the growing scourge of anti-Semitism, extremism, and hate around the world. Ruth Halimi's courage and tenacity in the face of Ilna's brutal kidnapping and murder challenge each of us to oppose hatred in every interation. The foreword by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, is an urgent warning about the steep cost of intolerance today. And why wemust stamp it out--now.

RUTH HALIMI is the mother of Ilan Halimi, whose kidnap and murder in 2006 by an anti-Semitic gang in France sparked an outcry and outrage around the world.

EMILIE FRECHE is a French writer committed to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism.

RENUKA GEORGE is a translator, editor, and documentary filmmaker who has translated many books and articles in the social sciences and literature.

“This is not only my son Ilan’s story.  I want it to be published to remind people of what hatred and intolerance can do, hatred for the other, intolerance of what we see as different. Given the world we live in today, we have to remember that we are all people, and we are the same, regardless of our beliefs. Otherwise, there will be very dark times ahead.”
                                                   ─Ruth Halimi, author of 24 Days 

─Ruth Halimi, author of 24 Days