Designer rehabs with rabbi after anti-Semitic tirade

Galliano says the sessions have taught him about survival and spirituality.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
John Galliano (photo credit: REUTERS)
John Galliano
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Disgraced fashion designer John Galliano has reportedly been meeting with a London rabbi and a Holocaust survivor as part of his rehabilitation process.
According to the Daily Mail on Sunday, part of the designer's anti-Semitic rehabilitation included meetings with Rabbi Barry Marcus of London and 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer. He also underwent treatment for drugs and alcohol before inching his way toward a comeback in the fashion scene earlier this year.
Olmer, who survived several labor camps in the Holocaust and lost the majority of his family, did not know of the designer before they met. However he said that Galliano is "very nice" and offered to make Olmer a suit.
Rabbi Marcus told the Jewish Chronicle of his meetings with Galliano that “As a human being, as a Jew, as a rabbi, as a humanist, I’m almost duty-bound to open the door to somebody who wants to make amends.”
Galliano said the sessions with Olmer and Marcus have taught him about survival and to be more "spiritual."
The designer, formerly known for his flamboyant, avant-garde collections for French fashion houses Givenchy and Christian Dior, was caught on camera in 2011 making drunken anti-Semitic remarks at a Paris cafe.
In the video, he called one woman a "Jewish whore," declared his love for Hitler and shouted that “people like you would be dead,” and “your mothers, your forefathers” would all be “gassed.”