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He is so ubiquitous in France that he is known simply as B.H.L., his initials akin to a French luxury brand.

“Do not give in to discouragement,” exhorts the man usually referred to as B.H.L.

B.H.L., as the French call him, published a new book, “The Empire and the Five Kings: America’s Abdication and the Fate of the World,” in February and now appears in a one-man play “Looking for Europe.”

He is known simply as B.H.L., a man of inherited wealth, a socialist whose trademarks — flowing hair, black suits, unbuttoned white shirts, thin blond women — can undercut his passionate campaigning on public causes, including stopping genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, strong support for Israel and an early critique of France’s unthinking fascination with Communism, revolution and the Soviet Union.

He had entered Hebrew Union College at 14, earned a B.H.L.