Jewish Intellectual Responses to Antisemitism in Contemporary France

Topics:

Sarah Hammerschlag (University of Chicago), “Does the World Need Jews?: Jewish Exemplarity and the Anxiety of Other Forms of Otherness.”

Sarah Hammerschlag is a scholar in the area of Religion and Literature with research focused on the position of Judaism in the post-World War II French intellectual scene. Her most recent book is Devotion: Three Inquiries in Religion, Literature and Political Imagination (2021), co-written with Constance Furey and Amy Hollywood.

Jacob Levi (Connecticut College), "L’Affaire Carpentras, Anti-Semitism, and the Future of Europe"

Jacob Levi's research focuses on questions of language, representation, and translation in 20th century French literature and philosophy, with a focus on Jewish identity in post-war France. His current book project, Exile, Adventure, and the Book: Judéité in Post-War French Thought, is an intellectual history of 20th century French-Jewish thinkers, specifically philosophers Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, and poet Edmond Jabès.

Moderated by Flora Cassen, chair of the Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies department.

Presented by the Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies department in collaboration with the French Connexion Cultural Center.