Milàn Czerny, an intelligent and soft-spoken man, grew up with a dual identity – French and Jewish-Russian. His father was born in France to a family with deep roots in Belarus, bordered by Russia and Ukraine. His mother was from a French family. This cultural tapestry would inform much of Czerny’s life.
“My older brother and I grew up speaking Russian at home,” says Czerny.
“My father, a professor of Russian literature and Holocaust studies, wanted to cultivate Soviet Jewish culture at home.”
The family traveled frequently to Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, where one of his father’s closest friends helped found Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev. Czerny recalls celebrating Jewish holidays with Normandy’s small Jewish community and lighting Shabbat candles, but the connection to Judaism was more cultural than religious.
During high school, in addition to being a good student, with an interest in the humanities, Czerny honed his judo skills and reached the national level in France. He loved to travel and when it came time to go to college, he chose Kings College in London.
“I was attracted to the multicultural campus and decided to major in war studies,” he explains. “In essence, it is a combination of political science and international relations, and Kings College is a leader in this.”
During his sophomore year, Czerny did a year abroad at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. It was not his first time in the United States, as his family had lived there for a year when his father was a visiting professor. But it did open his eyes to a culture very different from his own and expanded his already wide horizons.
It was also during college that Czerny began his journalistic journey. He started writing for Le Grand Continent, a French journal focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe, and helped establish it as a leading European intellectual publication. He was immersed in Russian studies and visited the country frequently.
“I continued to Oxford University, where I did my masters in Russian and Eastern European studies for two years,” says Czerny. “This included a focus on Russian foreign policy in the Middle East.”
Czerny’s growing expertise on Russia brought him to the attention of a number of think tanks and media outlets. He began writing analyses for the think tanks and doing interviews in the French media. This grew with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and led Czerny to delve further into journalism.
Breaking into journalism amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine
At this time, he began to work as a freelancer for the independent opposition news website The Insider, published in Russian and English. He combined open-source intelligence with traditional journalism to conduct investigations on changes in Russian society in the context of the war in Ukraine.
When asked if he feared retaliation for his opposition, he replies, “I don’t have any family in Russia, so I am not under the same level of threat as others. But I definitely wouldn’t visit Russia. In fact, I can’t go back to Russia or Belarus.”
In August 2022, Czerny made aliyah to Tel Aviv, excited to be part of Israel’s international journalist community. A little more than a year later, he was offered a job at Shomrim – The Center for Media and Democracy in Israel.
Shomrim is an independent, nonprofit news organization that strengthens Israeli democracy through investigative journalism, similar to ProPublica in the United States. It examines issues of importance to communities that are overlooked and dives deeply into stories that might otherwise go untold.
Czerny had read an article about Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich by Uri Blau, one of Shomrim’s leading investigative reporters, and contacted him. In typical Israeli style, Blau introduced him to Eyal Abrahami, Shomrim’s editor-in-chief, and Abrahami offered Czerny a job.
“I am doing open-source investigative journalism here,” explains Czerny. “I rely on social media and online sources, and this is something relatively new in Israel.”
Czerny’s first two stories – one on Israel’s failure to halt Hamas’s cryptocurrency fundraising, and the other on Russia’s fake news and cyberattacks on Israel with hackers close to the Kremlin – have been picked up by a number of major Israeli news outlets, such as N12 and YNet. These topics continue to resonate in the news.
Czerny says that being in Israel and working in the country is very meaningful for him. After the October 7 massacre and the subsequent Swords of Iron war, he feels this more strongly than ever.
“This is a significant historical period for Israel,” he says. “As a journalist, I feel the enormity of being part of this and on reporting on it.”
Living with his Israeli partner, a journalist for a leading international news outlet, Czerny says that it is fascinating to be part of such a vibrant journalistic community, with reporters descending on Israel from all over the world.
He sums up his aliyah thus far, “I try not to focus on the negative side of things. I feel that I am doing important work, that I have made many great connections, and that being here is very significant.” ■
MILÀN CZERNY, 25 FROM NORMANDY, FRANCE TO TEL AVIV, 2022