On Tuesday nights, at 8:30, tens of thousands of people throughout France — believers and nonbelievers, Jews, Muslims and Christians — log on to Facebook to hear the nation’s foremost female rabbi discuss the intersection of racism and anti-Semitism, and help them make sense of a modern plague.

Horvilleur, 45, who has been called a rock star in a leather jacket, is a former model who has appeared on the cover of French Elle. The wild curls framing her face have been compared to the sidelocks of Hasidic Jews. She finds the descriptions amusing insofar as they counter stereotypes and help her reach audiences across cultures.

“I’m trying to create bridges between worlds that have stopped talking to each other,” she said. “I’m trying to create links between words and worlds.”

Horvilleur, one of only four female rabbis in France, is also known as the rare public intellectual who has brought faith into the conversation in a country committed to secularism. And although she is also one of the few progressive rabbis in France’s overwhelmingly Orthodox Jewish community, she has become a leader of a growing movement of Jews from all denominations.

“The Hebrew Bible is full of stories of leaders like Abraham, who were called to leave their birthplace to journey to an unknown region,” she said. “We are who we are because we were willing to go on another path. Judaism is a religion of becoming.”