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Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: September 15, 2020 at 6:18:17 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Judaic]: Judaken on Hammerschlag, 'Modern French > Jewish Thought: Writings on Religion and Politics' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Sarah Hammerschlag, ed. Modern French Jewish Thought: Writings on > Religion and Politics. Brandeis Library of Modern Jewish Thought > Series. Waltham Brandeis University Press, 2018. xxvii + 268 pp. > $26.00 (paper), ISBN 978-1-5126-0186-2; $95.00 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-61168-526-8. > > Reviewed by Jonathan Judaken (University of Memphis) > Published on H-Judaic (September, 2020) > Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz > > French Philoso-Jews and Meta-Rabbis > > In this anthology, Sarah Hammerschlag offers readers a dive into the > deep reservoir of modern French Jewish thought. Her brilliantly > curated book is presented in roughly chronological order, exploring > Jewish philosophy and theology as a response to shifting contexts. > For French Jews, these were shaped by the legacy of the French > Revolution's emancipation of its Jewish citizens and the terms of the > Napoleonic social contract established by the Assembly of Notables > (1806), the convening of the "Sanhedrin" (1807), and Napoleon's new > edicts in 1808, most importantly, the establishment of a central > consistory that regulated French Judaism. This emancipation social > contract traded equal rights as citizens in return for acculturation, > "regeneration," or even complete assimilation. Two profound > convulsions challenged the terms of Jewish equality: the Dreyfus > affair and more perniciously the Vichy regime's racial laws. In the > postwar period--the central focus of Hammerschlag's > compilation--French Jewry was transformed by the memory of the Shoah; > the decolonization of North Africa that led to a demographic > transformation as a result of Jews migrating to the metropole from > the Maghreb (often alongside Muslims); and events in Israel, > especially the Six Day War and its aftermath. The ramifications of > these processes continue to shape French Jewry and influence French > Jewish thought. > > Hammerschlag's short introduction sketches this history and sets up > the anthology by setting out the two key themes that structure the > texts she has chosen: the universal and the particular and > identification and disidentification. In the first part of the book, > "The _Israélite _of the Republic," a set of texts from 1860 to 1928 > wrestle primarily with the terms of French identity as constituted by > the legacy of the French Revolution. The _Israélite _of her section > title refers to those Jews who accepted the stipulations of French > acculturation, even as they insisted on the universal values of > Jewish thought. The excerpts in the second section, "The Cataclysm > and the Aftermath," were penned during the Holocaust or directly in > response to it, indicating a rupture in the provisos of the French > social contract. The third part, "Universal and Particular: The Jew > and the Political Realm," is a neatly ordered but fraught dialogue > about the significance of Zionism and the State of Israel. The last > part, "Identification, Disidentification," contains a set of > considerations on the meaning of community and belonging for Jewish > philosophers in the post-Holocaust and in a postcolonial world. > > The anthology's first contribution is to supplement the > Germano-centrism of modern Jewish thought. The canon is often framed > around German-speaking thinkers from Moses Mendelssohn to Franz > Rosenzweig. In recent years Emmanuel Levinas has served as a > postscript and continuation of this tradition. But the brilliant > array of French Jewish thinkers assembled--often translated for the > first time by Hammerschlag, regularly teaming with Beatrice > Bourgogne--make evident that a parallel stream existed in France from > the nineteenth century. Clearly influenced by their German > counterparts engaged in the academic study of Judaism--the > _Wissenschaft des Judentums_--_La science du judaïsme_ emerged in > France in the 1830s, led by leading Orientalists like Adolphe Franck > and Salomon Munk. The volume begins with two excerpts by Joseph > Salvador (chapter 1) and James Darmesteter (chapter 2) who were part > of this pioneering cohort. I wish that Hammerschlag would have taught > us more about this early history, since we are only offered a glimpse > into developments in the nineteenth century. The other vanguard > voices in part 1 include Bernard Lazare (chapter 4), the paragon of > the conscious pariah so beautifully rendered by Hannah Arendt, and > André Spire (chapter 5), along with Edmond Fleg (chapter 7).[1] > > Not only are the individual thinkers that Hammerschlag's anthology > elevates a deep and wide counterpoint to the German tradition, but > she also has a historical plot to her tale. The Dark Years, as the > French often refer to the period of collaboration with the Nazis, > tore apart the identification of Jews with the French state. "There > can be no doubt," writes Hammerschlag, "that the Second World War > altered the terms of French Judaism, the self-understanding of French > Jews, and the project and mission of the nation's Jewish > organizations" (p. xv). A revival of Judaism ensued, she explains: > "Already during the war a reorientation of Jewish life and identity > began to take place at farm schools, in study circles, and in > children's homes. In the spring of 1941, the Jewish poet Edmond Fleg > and the leader of the Jewish scouting movement Robert Gamzon" were > working to educate a new generation of Jewish thinkers to take on the > mantle of vitalizing Judaism (p. xvi). Hammerschlag includes > selections from some of these lesser-known figures like Gamzon > (chapter 9) and Jacob Gordin (chapter 10). Their project influenced > the postwar generation, alongside the well-known work of Levinas > (chapter 11), as did the insights of thinkers like Vladimir > Jankélévitch (chapter 12), who has received some recognition even > by English-language scholars.[2] In short, Hammerschlag's story is > that if the Jewish renaissance was pioneered in Germany in the > interwar years, a blossoming across the Rhine took place in > post-Holocaust Paris. _Tout court_, Paris was the continuation of > Frankfurt and Berlin. > > The problem with this story is that there was a Jewish renaissance in > Paris in the interwar years in which a diasporic cultural Zionism > played a central role. This is wholly underplayed by Hammerschlag. > She alludes to it in her introduction to the excerpt on Fleg when she > writes, "Along with André Spire, Jean-Richard Bloch, and Armand > Lunel, he [Fleg] was part of a Jewish literary revival that blossomed > in the decades between the Dreyfus Affair and the Second World War" > (p. 54). This Jewish cultural efflorescence profoundly reshaped > Jewish intellectual life before the rise of the Nazis. As Nadia > Malinovich documents in her important study of this era: "French Jews > began to question how they should define Jewishness in a society > where Jews enjoyed full political equality. Writers who had > previously given little thought to their Jewish identity began to > explore biblical themes, traditional Jewish folklore, and issues of > identity and assimilation in their novels, plays, and poetry. A > plethora of journals focusing on Jewish religion, history, and > culture came into being in France between 1900-1932, when a multitude > of associations that emphasized Jewish distinctiveness--literary > societies, youth groups, religious organizations--also formed. This > blossoming of Jewish cultural life, which contemporaries referred to > as a 'renaissance' or 'awakening', provides a particularly > interesting vantage-point from which to explore the complex ways in > which both 'Jewishness' and 'Frenchness' were renegotiated in the > early twentieth century."[3] The French Jewish cultural renaissance > of the early twentieth century is an area of exciting new work by > Sally Charnow, building on the earlier studies of Malinovich and > others, and deserves more attention.[4] > > The failure to give full credence to the cultural revival already at > work before the Holocaust perhaps results in some of Hammerschlag's > errors. Fleg, for example, was not "born into an assimilated family > in Geneva" as Hammerschlag notes (p. 54). Religious observance was an > important part of his upbringing. In _Why I Am a Jew_, in an earlier > part of the book from which she takes her excerpt from Fleg, he > writes, "It seemed natural that my father should, in the morning, > wrap himself in a shawl of white wool with black stripes, and should > bind lengths of leather on his forehead and left arm, while he > murmured words which were not words. I thought grace after a meal as > necessary as the meal itself; and I felt no surprise when, on Friday > evening, my mother stretched forth her fingers over the Sabbath > candles, which shone through them and made them transparent."[5] In > _Why I Am a Jew_, Fleg narrates how his immersion into French culture > led to his drift away from his Jewishness, until the anti-Semitism of > the Dreyfus affair reawakened his return to Judaism, spurring his > cultural Zionism, resulting in the key role he would come to play in > helping to revive Jewish culture in France. This was all at work > before the Holocaust. > > The same is true for Albert Memmi, who Hammerschlag likewise suggests > was awakened to his Jewish identity by the Vichy racial laws: "For > some, like the writer Albert Memmi, the [Vichy racial] statutes > motivated a reassertion of Jewish identity, if not in religious > terms, then at least in political ones" (p. xv). Again, this > narrative does not fit the facts. Memmi was raised on the Jewish > cultural traditions of Tunis, went to study in a traditional > religious school as a young boy, and became an avid member of > Hashomer Hatzair as a young man. He never had to rediscover his > Jewish identity provoked by the Vichy collaboration with the Nazis > because his was a Jewish itinerary from the beginning. Suggesting > otherwise would intimate a notion of Jewish identity as static, which > is clearly belied by Hammerschlag's selections. In making these > claims about the hard break occasioned by the rise of Hitlerism, > Hammerschlag seems to generalize a narrative advanced by Samuel Moyn > about Levinas that I have tried to show does not hold in his case > either.[6] > > There is no doubt that the Holocaust was a caesura in Jewish life > that irrevocably altered how Jews came to understand themselves in > its wake. But perhaps this was never more the case than in the > argument that the Holocaust left a deeper imprint on individuals' > lives than their early upbringing, which obviously was a formative > lens through which many Jewish intellectuals made sense of the Shoah. > A case that makes the point is Sarah Kofman. Hammerschlag includes an > anguished excerpt from _Smothered Words _(1987) (chapter 13), > Kofman's philosophical meditation on what it means to write and think > after the disaster, including about being Jewish. It is layered by > her own experience of coming to terms with the death of her father, > Rabbi Berek Kofman, who was beaten unconscious and buried alive by a > _kapo_ in Auschwitz for refusing to work on Shabbat. Kofman offers > more extended biographical reflections in _Rue Ordener, Rue Labat > _(1994), her tortured, short memoir of survival in hiding after her > father was deported. She recounts how she survived living with a > Christian woman, whom she calls Mémé, who clearly harbored > anti-Jewish stereotypes but who nonetheless risked her own life to > save Sarah and her mother, even as she introduced Sarah to all the > temptations of forbidden French food and culture. _Rue Ordender, Rue > Labat_ reflects a young child wretched apart by her Jewishness and > her desire to acculturate, which her survival depended on, even as > she considers through suffocated words what her parents meant to her, > and by extension the significance of her being Jewish. > > It is fitting that the passages from Kofman close the set of > selections included in part 2, "The Cataclysm and the Aftermath," > which is opened by a letter from Simone Weil, "What Is a Jew" > (chapter 8). Unlike Kofman, Weil did not even learn she was Jewish > until she was ten, so assimilated were her parents and afraid that > their children would suffer from anti-Semitism. One month after the > Vichy racial laws were passed in October 1940, Weil wrote to Xavier > Vallat, then Commissioner for Jewish Affairs, about why her teaching > position was not renewed. Certainly Weil was aware of Vallat's > anti-Semitism, evident in a notorious speech he gave in the Chamber > of Deputies in June 1936 when socialist Léon Blum became France's > first Jewish prime minister: "Your assumption of power, Mr. Prime > Minister," Vallat bleated, "is unquestionably an historic event. For > the first time, this old Gallo-Roman land will be governed by a > Jew.... I must say out loud what everyone else is thinking to > themselves--that in order to govern this peasant nation that is > France, it is preferable to have someone whose origins, no matter how > modest, disappear into the bowels of our soil, rather than a subtle > Talmudist." After skeptically interrogating what it means to be a Jew > in her epistle to Vallat, Weil insists that she should not be > excluded from her teaching position, since "mine is the Christian, > French, Greek tradition. The Hebraic tradition is alien to me, and no > Statute can make it otherwise" (p. 65). It is little wonder then that > her journey would take her ever deeper into Christian mysticism, even > as the Nazi genocide unfolded across Europe. > > Hammerschlag includes a penetrating musing on "the lost children of > Judaism" (the title of chapter 19) like Weil by Jacqueline > Mesnil-Amar. She writes beautifully and movingly about "those > vagabonds, lost from Judaism, who, voluntarily or by circumstance > have abandoned Israel, turned away: the rebels against the law, those > ignorant of tradition" (p. 182). These lost children with their > "extremely subtle and mixed message" represent "another sort of > Judaism" exemplified by writers like Marcel Proust and Max Jacob (p. > 183). Their inclusion highlights another contribution of the > anthology: the capacious set of voices that the volume consciously > includes, broadening the contours of modern Jewish thought. > > The section titled "Identification, Disidentification" which opens > with Mesnil-Amar closes with an excerpt from an article by Stéphane > Mosès, "Normative Modernity and Critical Modernity" (chapter 24). > Mosès was an innovative interpreter of Rosenzweig and Walter > Benjamin among other Weimar-period German Jewish thinkers and "an > important participant in its postwar French sequel: _l'école juive > de Paris_, as Emmanuel Levinas dubbed it" (p. 245). The underlined > descriptor clearly indicates another important contribution of this > volume--spotlighting as it does the depth of post-Holocaust French > Jewish thought as a continuation of the highpoint of German Jewish > philosophy. > > Mosès's essay, which closes the book, brings together the various > contributions of the volume. In it, he argues for a normative modern > tradition that includes "Emmanuel Levinas but also Hermann Cohen and > Franz Rosenzweig" (p. 246). Mosès then sketches the contours of a > "_critical modernity_" that is "represented by authors such as > Benjamin, Kafka, Celan, Arendt, Jabès and in a certain measure, > Scholem, and much later Jacques Derrida." For Mosès, these Jewish > thinkers, in Arendt's words, believe "the thread of tradition is > broken," and "we cannot reconnect it." Mosès continues: there is > only "a _shattered_ past that is no longer capable of inspiring in us > judgments of evident value. In this broken time that expresses the > discontinuity of the past, the contents of faith--I speak now of the > Jewish faith--are no longer audible for us; they no longer correspond > to any experience today" (p. 247). In addition to the selection from > Derrida (chapter 23), the longest in the book, one could also include > the snippets from Hélène Cixous (chapter 22), along with Alain > Finkielkraut's agonized wrestling with the possibility of an > authentic Jewishness after the Shoah in the excerpt from _The > Imaginary Jew_ (chapter 21), as a part of this critical tradition > that Hammerschlag clearly wants to add to the canon of modern Jewish > thought. Léon Ashkénazi in "Tradition and Modernity" (chapter 20), > on the other hand, provides an argument linking normative modernity > back to "the Bible as the identity card of Hebrews.... We study it to > know what we believe in.... afterward, one studies the books that > speak about it. This is the Jewish tradition as it has been for > centuries" (p. 196). > > The gamut of debate in _Modern French Jewish Thought _is not only > about the ramifications of Jewish thought across time but also about > the meaning of space, specifically about Zionism. Memmi lays the > groundwork for an argument that Zionism emerges from the experience > of Jews as a colonized people (chapter 14). He writes, "We are, in > short, the forsaken as far as history is concerned. We would like to > go our way unnoticed: but history in doing without us, also > frequently acts against us. Everything happens as though the Jew > offered himself as an expiatory victim, specially marked out for the > meager imagination of executioners, dictators and politicians" (p. > 136). For Memmi, the State of Israel is consequently necessary as a > safe haven but also as a crucible for forging new highpoints in > Jewish culture. > > Richard Marienstras in "The Jews of the Diaspora, or the Vocation of > a Minority" (chapter 15) demurs. Not only does the Jewish diaspora > show that "there are many ways of assuming and creating the Jewish > destiny," but diasporism is also necessary as part of a struggle > against "the State as it exists today ... a State that transforms > citizens into subjects, producers into cogwheels, public servants > into agents of power, and the majority culture into an instrument of > propaganda and domination" (pp. 145, 150). With the two furthest > points on the spectrum charted, there is also a chapter titled "The > Jewish Dimension of Space: Zionism" (chapter 16) by André Neher and > another titled "Jerusalem" (chapter 17) by Henri Atlan. Finally, > there is also a complicated critique of universalism by Shmuel > Trigano (chapter 18). Along the way, Trigano manages to slam the > neo-Pauline Judeophobia of Alain Badiou and Giorgio Agamben, while > still affirming "the unity of humanity" our "infinite and irreducible > plurality" and the "ingathering in a unique place," all in a few > pages (p. 178). > > While Hammerschlag promises that the anthology is no documentary > reader, there are selections that do not meet the yardstick of what > might be included in a course on modern Jewish thought except to > provide context. Zadoc Kahn's "Speech on the Acceptance of His > Position as Chief Rabbi of France" (chapter 3) or Sylvain Levi's > essay "Alliance Israélite Universelle" (chapter 6) would be > examples. But these are quibbles with a fabulously rendered anthology > that can launch readers into the brilliance of modern French Jewish > thought, where a captivating universe of new thinkers remains to be > discovered for many English readers, students, and more seasoned > scholars alike. > > Notes > > [1]. Hannah Arendt, "The Jew as Pariah: A Hidden Tradition," in _The > Jewish Writings_, ed. Jerome Kohn and Ron H. Feldman (New York: > Schocken Books, 2007), 275-97. > > [2]. Alan Udoff, ed., _Vladimir Jankélévitch and the Question of > Forgiveness_ (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2013). > > [3]. Nadia Malinovich, _French and Jewish: Culture and the Politics > of Identity in Early Twentieth-Century France _(Oxford: Littman > Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008), 1. > > [4]. See, for example, Sally Charnow, "Imagining a New Jerusalem: > Edmond Fleg and Interwar Ecumenism," _French History_ 27, no. 4 > (2013): 557-78; Catherina Fhima, "Au Coeur de la 'renaissance juive' > des années 1920: literature et judéité," _Archives Juives > _(2006): 29-45; and Aron Rodrigue, "Rearticulations of French Jewish > Identities after the Dreyfus Affair," _Jewish Social Studies _3 > (1996): 3. > > [5]. Edmond Fleg, _Why I Am A Jew_, trans. Victor Gollancz (1928; > repr., London: Victor Gollancz, 1943), 9. > > [6]. Jonathan Judaken, "'The Presentiment and Memory of the Nazi > Horror': Emmanuel Levinas and the Holocaust," in _Europe in the Eyes > of Survivors of the Holocaust_, ed. Zeev Mankowitz, David Weinberg, > and Sharon Kangisser Cohen (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2014), 171-206. > > _Jonathan Judaken is the Spence L. Wilson Chair in Humanities at > Rhodes College._ > > Citation: Jonathan Judaken. Review of Hammerschlag, Sarah, ed., > _Modern French Jewish Thought: Writings on Religion and Politics_. > H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. September, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54703 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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