Modern French Jewish Thought

Writings on Religion and Politics

Sarah Hammerschlag

• Publisher: Brandeis University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781512601862, 9781611685268
• eBook ISBN: 9781512601879
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

"Modern Jewish thought" is often defined as a German affair, with interventions from Eastern European, American, and Israeli philosophers. The story of France's development of its own schools of thought has not been substantially treated outside the French milieu. This anthology of modern French Jewish writing offers the first look at how this significant and diverse body of work developed within the historical and intellectual contexts of France and Europe. Translated into English, these documents speak to two critical axes—the first between Jewish universalism and particularism, and the second between the identification and disidentification of French Jews with France as a nation. Offering key works from Simone Weil, Vladimir Jankélévitch, Emmanuel Levinas, Albert Memmi, Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida, and many others, this volume is organized in roughly chronological order, to highlight the connections linking religion, politics, and history, as they coalesce around a Judaism that is unique to France.

Index

Abitbol, Michel, 42, 48–49n1

Abraham, 57, 79, 80, 82, 84, 91, 99, 101, 133, 189–90, 236, 242

Abraham Hai de Cologna, 5

Académie française, 199

Adam, 80, 251

Adler-Rudel, S., Jewish Balance Sheet, 136

Adorno, Theodor, 118, 119n7

Agamben, Giorgio, 177

Ajobard of Lyons, 36

Akademie für die Wissenschaft des Judentums, 78

Algeria, World War II repeal of Crémieux Decree in, xvi, 59, 159, 186, 209, 215

Algerian Jews, vii, xx, 134–35, 159, 171, 186, 208–10, 209, 210, 214, 221, 227

Algerian war, ix, xvi, xviii, 123, 171, 209, 227

aliyah. See Israel

Alliance israélite universelle, xiii, 1, 2, 18, 48–53, 78, 99, 160, 172

Alsatian Jews, xi, xii, xiii, xxivn5, xxviin35, 22, 151

American Joint Distribution Committee, 137

Antelme, Robert, 118; The Human Race, 117; “The Indestructible,” 117

antisemitism: Algerian war and emigration of North African Jews, 123, 171, 209, 210, 227; birth of State of Israel and Six-Day War exposing, 124; Diaspora, non-Zionist, secular Jewish identity in, 140, 144; in Dreyfus era, xiv, xix, xxvn14, xxvn19, 10, 18–19, 30–34, 36, 39, 41; of Egypt, 132; German, before World War II, 135–36; Jewish identity and, 179, 206, 209, 210, 227, 229; “new antisemitism,” xix, 172, 176–77; in World War II era, xxvin33, 63, 108, 112–14, 117, 119, 179

Arendt, Hannah, xxvin23, 31, 198, 247; “The Crisis of Culture,” 247

Aron, Raymond, 124

Aron (Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg), xxvn10

Ashkénazi, Léon, xvii, xx, 67, 79, 160, 180, 186–87, 215; “Tradition and Modernity,” 186–97

assimilation: in Dreyfus era, xi, xvii, 1–3, 5, 31, 32, 4...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• I | The Israélite of the Republic
• II | The Cataclysm and the Aftermath
• III | Universal and Particular: The Jew and the Political Realm
• IV | Identification, Disidentification
• Acknowledgments
• Suggestions for Further Reading
• Index