Milantia Bourla
E-mail: mbc3107@gmail.com
Milantia Bourla-Errera, writer and psychoanalyst, was born in Paris. Her parents, diplomats, held several posts around the world before settling in Belgium. Through her mother, she is descended from the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Leon Cortes. Through her father, born in Bulgaria in the former Ottoman Empire, she perpetuates the flamboyant heritage of the Sephardim of Spain. A Sephardic community leader in Paris, writer and diplomat, her father played a major role in the Latin American vote at the United Nations (1947-1948) during the debates on the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel.
Milantia Errera-Bourla joined the Fondation de la Mémoire contemporaine, alongside Barons Jean Bloch and Georges Schneck, on its scientific board when it was created in 1994. Trained at the Spielberg Foundation, she was in charge of oral interviews.
In 2000, Milantia Errera-Bourla published Moise Lévy, un rabbin au Congo (Éditions de la Longue Vue), which won the Marcel Marinower Foundation prize. Based on numerous interviews, documents and archives, this study retraces the history of the Jewish community in the former Belgian Congo since 1937 through the biography of Moise Lévy.
She is also the author of the book Une histoire juive : Les Errera. Parcours d'une assimilation (Racine, Brussels, 2000). On this occasion, she discovered and transcribed the notebooks of Marie Oppenheim Errera, written between 1853 and 1876.
Milantia Errera-Bourla is also a contributor to the Dictionnaire biographique des juifs de Belgique (Éditions de Boeck, Brussels, 2002), directed by Professor J.-Ph. Schreiber.
After internships at the Bernheim Foundation (2004), Milantia Bourla-Errera took part in and initiated many other research projects. In 2004 she fought for the establishment of an important study, proposed and supported by the Ministers of Science Policy M. Verwilghen and Development Cooperation A. De Decker, on "The Jews of Europe". De Decker on "The Jews in the European City since 1945: Cultural exception or model of integration?
Milantia Bourla-Errera is a lecturer on issues related to Jewish communities around the world. She gave a lecture (2007), in dialogue with Professor Hervé Hasquin, on Giacomo Errera (1834-1880), First Consul of Italy in Belgium in 1867.
From 2008 to 2017, Milantia Bourla is Director of International Relations at the European Sephardic Institute, founded by Moïse Rahmani. In this capacity, she conducted numerous interviews with Sephardic leaders in the United States, Cuba, etc. and published articles on the subject on the Institute's website and in several magazines (including Los muestros).
Since 2019, she has been volunteering as a school tutor in a bridging class for newcomer children in the Marolles district of Brussels.
In 2021 Milantia Bourla is appointed vice-president of the Contemporary Memory Foundation, taking over the position that Baron Alain Philippson had held since 1994.
Milantia Bourla-Errera, writer and psychoanalyst, was born in Paris. Her parents, diplomats, held several posts around the world before settling in Belgium. Through her mother, she is descended from the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, Leon Cortes. Through her father, born in Bulgaria in the former Ottoman Empire, she perpetuates the flamboyant heritage of the Sephardim of Spain. A Sephardic community leader in Paris, writer and diplomat, her father played a major role in the Latin American vote at the United Nations (1947-1948) during the debates on the partition of Palestine and the creation of Israel.
Milantia Errera-Bourla joined the Fondation de la Mémoire contemporaine, alongside Barons Jean Bloch and Georges Schneck, on its scientific board when it was created in 1994. Trained at the Spielberg Foundation, she was in charge of oral interviews.
In 2000, Milantia Errera-Bourla published Moise Lévy, un rabbin au Congo (Éditions de la Longue Vue), which won the Marcel Marinower Foundation prize. Based on numerous interviews, documents and archives, this study retraces the history of the Jewish community in the former Belgian Congo since 1937 through the biography of Moise Lévy.
She is also the author of the book Une histoire juive : Les Errera. Parcours d'une assimilation (Racine, Brussels, 2000). On this occasion, she discovered and transcribed the notebooks of Marie Oppenheim Errera, written between 1853 and 1876.
Milantia Errera-Bourla is also a contributor to the Dictionnaire biographique des juifs de Belgique (Éditions de Boeck, Brussels, 2002), directed by Professor J.-Ph. Schreiber.
After internships at the Bernheim Foundation (2004), Milantia Bourla-Errera took part in and initiated many other research projects. In 2004 she fought for the establishment of an important study, proposed and supported by the Ministers of Science Policy M. Verwilghen and Development Cooperation A. De Decker, on "The Jews of Europe". De Decker on "The Jews in the European City since 1945: Cultural exception or model of integration?
Milantia Bourla-Errera is a lecturer on issues related to Jewish communities around the world. She gave a lecture (2007), in dialogue with Professor Hervé Hasquin, on Giacomo Errera (1834-1880), First Consul of Italy in Belgium in 1867.
From 2008 to 2017, Milantia Bourla is Director of International Relations at the European Sephardic Institute, founded by Moïse Rahmani. In this capacity, she conducted numerous interviews with Sephardic leaders in the United States, Cuba, etc. and published articles on the subject on the Institute's website and in several magazines (including Los muestros).
Since 2019, she has been volunteering as a school tutor in a bridging class for newcomer children in the Marolles district of Brussels.
In 2021 Milantia Bourla is appointed vice-president of the Contemporary Memory Foundation, taking over the position that Baron Alain Philippson had held since 1994.
