The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940 - 44

The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940 - 44

Author: Jacques Semelin

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-12-01

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0190057998

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Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.


Book Synopsis The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940 - 44 by : Jacques Semelin

Download or read book The Survival of the Jews in France, 1940 - 44 written by Jacques Semelin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-12-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the French defeat in 1940 and liberation in 1944, the Nazis killed almost 80,000 of France's Jews, both French and foreign. Since that time, this tragedy has been well-documented. But there are other stories hidden within it-ones neglected by historians. In fact, 75% of France's Jews escaped the extermination, while 45% of the Jews of Belgium perished, and in the Netherlands only 20% survived. The Nazis were determined to destroy the Jews across Europe, and the Vichy regime collaborated in their deportation from France. So what is the meaning of this French exception? Jacques Semelin sheds light on this 'French enigma', painting a radically unfamiliar view of occupied France. His is a rich, even-handed portrait of a complex and changing society, one where helping and informing on one's neighbours went hand in hand; and where small gestures of solidarity sat comfortably with anti-Semitism. Without shying away from the horror of the Holocaust's crimes, this seminal work adds a fresh perspective to our history of the Second World War.


The Jews of France

The Jews of France

Author: Esther Benbassa

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2001-07-02

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1400823145

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In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism. As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made toward social and political integration, the shifting social and demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair, persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of North African Jews. Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for dramatic reading.


Book Synopsis The Jews of France by : Esther Benbassa

Download or read book The Jews of France written by Esther Benbassa and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2001-07-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in Judaism. As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine. The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made toward social and political integration, the shifting social and demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair, persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of North African Jews. Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for dramatic reading.


The Jews of Modern France

The Jews of Modern France

Author: Paula E. Hyman

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2023-04-28

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0520919297

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The Jews of Modern France explores the endlessly complex encounter of France and its Jews from just before the Revolution to the eve of the twenty-first century. In the late eighteenth century, some forty thousand Jews lived in scattered communities on the peripheries of the French state, not considered French by others or by themselves. Two hundred years later, in 1989, France celebrated the anniversary of the Revolution with the largest, most vital Jewish population in western and central Europe. Paula Hyman looks closely at the period that began when France's Jews were offered citizenship during the Revolution. She shows how they and succeeding generations embraced the opportunities of integration and acculturation, redefined their identities, adapted their Judaism to the pragmatic and ideological demands of the time, and participated fully in French culture and politics. Within this same period, Jews in France fell victim to a secular political antisemitism that mocked the gains of emancipation, culminating first in the Dreyfus Affair and later in the murder of one-fourth of them in the Holocaust. Yet up to the present day, through successive waves of immigration, Jews have asserted the compatibility of their French identity with various versions of Jewish particularity, including Zionism. This remarkable view in microcosm of the modern Jewish experience will interest general readers and scholars alike.


Book Synopsis The Jews of Modern France by : Paula E. Hyman

Download or read book The Jews of Modern France written by Paula E. Hyman and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Jews of Modern France explores the endlessly complex encounter of France and its Jews from just before the Revolution to the eve of the twenty-first century. In the late eighteenth century, some forty thousand Jews lived in scattered communities on the peripheries of the French state, not considered French by others or by themselves. Two hundred years later, in 1989, France celebrated the anniversary of the Revolution with the largest, most vital Jewish population in western and central Europe. Paula Hyman looks closely at the period that began when France's Jews were offered citizenship during the Revolution. She shows how they and succeeding generations embraced the opportunities of integration and acculturation, redefined their identities, adapted their Judaism to the pragmatic and ideological demands of the time, and participated fully in French culture and politics. Within this same period, Jews in France fell victim to a secular political antisemitism that mocked the gains of emancipation, culminating first in the Dreyfus Affair and later in the murder of one-fourth of them in the Holocaust. Yet up to the present day, through successive waves of immigration, Jews have asserted the compatibility of their French identity with various versions of Jewish particularity, including Zionism. This remarkable view in microcosm of the modern Jewish experience will interest general readers and scholars alike.


Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955

Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955

Author: Seán Hand

Publisher: NYU Press

Published: 2015-06-12

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1479835048

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Despite an outpouring of scholarship on the Holocaust, little work has focused on what happened to Europe’s Jewish communities after the war ended. And unlike many other European nations in which the majority of the Jewish population perished, France had a significant post‑war Jewish community that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945–1955 offers new insight on key aspects of French Jewish life in the decades following the end of World War II. How Jews had been treated during the war continued to influence both Jewish and non-Jewish society in the post-war years. The volume examines the ways in which moral and political issues of responsibility combined with the urgent problems and practicalities of restoration, and it illustrates how national imperatives, international dynamics, and a changed self-perception all profoundly helped to shape the fortunes of postwar French Judaism.Comprehensive and informed, this volume offers a rich variety of perspectives on Jewish studies, modern and contemporary history, literary and cultural analysis, philosophy, sociology, and theology. With contributions from leading scholars, including Edward Kaplan, Susan Rubin Suleiman, and Jay Winter, the book establishes multiple connections between such different areas of concern as the running of orphanages, the establishment of new social and political organisations, the restoration of teaching and religious facilities, and the development of intellectual responses to the Holocaust. Comprehensive and informed, this volume will be invaluable to readers working in Jewish studies, modern and contemporary history, literary and cultural analysis, philosophy, sociology, and theology.


Book Synopsis Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955 by : Seán Hand

Download or read book Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955 written by Seán Hand and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-06-12 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite an outpouring of scholarship on the Holocaust, little work has focused on what happened to Europe’s Jewish communities after the war ended. And unlike many other European nations in which the majority of the Jewish population perished, France had a significant post‑war Jewish community that numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945–1955 offers new insight on key aspects of French Jewish life in the decades following the end of World War II. How Jews had been treated during the war continued to influence both Jewish and non-Jewish society in the post-war years. The volume examines the ways in which moral and political issues of responsibility combined with the urgent problems and practicalities of restoration, and it illustrates how national imperatives, international dynamics, and a changed self-perception all profoundly helped to shape the fortunes of postwar French Judaism.Comprehensive and informed, this volume offers a rich variety of perspectives on Jewish studies, modern and contemporary history, literary and cultural analysis, philosophy, sociology, and theology. With contributions from leading scholars, including Edward Kaplan, Susan Rubin Suleiman, and Jay Winter, the book establishes multiple connections between such different areas of concern as the running of orphanages, the establishment of new social and political organisations, the restoration of teaching and religious facilities, and the development of intellectual responses to the Holocaust. Comprehensive and informed, this volume will be invaluable to readers working in Jewish studies, modern and contemporary history, literary and cultural analysis, philosophy, sociology, and theology.


Jews in France During World War II

Jews in France During World War II

Author: Renée Poznanski

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 9781584651444

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Now in English, the authoritative work on ordinary Jews in France during World War II.


Book Synopsis Jews in France During World War II by : Renée Poznanski

Download or read book Jews in France During World War II written by Renée Poznanski and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2001 with total page 644 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in English, the authoritative work on ordinary Jews in France during World War II.


Vichy France and the Jews

Vichy France and the Jews

Author: Michael Robert Marrus

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 460

ISBN-13: 9780804724999

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Provides the definitive account of Vichy's own antisemitic policies and practices. It is a major contribution to the history of the Jewish tragedy in wartime Europe answering the haunting question, "What part did Vichy France really play in the Nazi effort to murder Jews living in France?"


Book Synopsis Vichy France and the Jews by : Michael Robert Marrus

Download or read book Vichy France and the Jews written by Michael Robert Marrus and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Provides the definitive account of Vichy's own antisemitic policies and practices. It is a major contribution to the history of the Jewish tragedy in wartime Europe answering the haunting question, "What part did Vichy France really play in the Nazi effort to murder Jews living in France?"


The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews

The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews

Author: Susan Zuccotti

Publisher: Plunkett Lake Press

Published: 2019-08-16

Total Pages: 660

ISBN-13:

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Drawing on the extensive memoir literature of Jews who survived the Nazi period in France, Zuccotti paints a collective portrait of the victims, of those who tried to help them, of those who persecuted them and of the vast majority of French people who looked the other way. Zuccotti concludes that “benign neglect, vague goodwill, and, occasionally, active support” helped three-quarters of French Jews survive, while almost half of foreign-born Jews living under Nazi occupation or in the Vichy government “free” zone were sent to extermination camps with the active help of the French authorities. “Valuable and lucid. [...] Susan Zucccotti's book is admirable in many important ways.” — Patrice Higonnet, New York Times Book Review “Ms. Zuccotti combines vivid narrative with the most scrupulous historical accuracy. It is good to be able to enter the helpful gestures of many French individuals into the scales against the unspeakable actions of many Vichy officials and zealots.” — Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University, author ofVichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 “Dr. Zuccotti’s book, admirably balanced and free of bias, is a rich and compassionate study of the plight of Jews in France during World War II.” — Léon Poliakov, Honorary Director of Research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) “In a vividly narrated reexamination of the historical record, Zuccotti tells the horrifying story of the fate of French Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. [...] A balanced yet heartrending contribution to Holocaust literature.” —Kirkus Review “Zuccotti forces us to rethink the French response to the Holocaust in this challenging book” — Publishers Weekly “By use of precise examples, Zuccotti is able to illustrate the human side and contribute to a new understanding of [the fate of France’s Jewish population during World War II]” — American Historical Review “Ms. Zuccotti finds France to be a nation which, in time of crisis, showed itself to be made up of a handful of villains, a few magnificent heroes and a vast assortment of the cowardly, the apathetic and the self-serving.” — Forward “Zuccotti presents the most comprehensive account of the Holocaust in France available to the English reader.” — Paula Hyman, Yale University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History “An excellent narrative.” — Choice, American Library Association “Zuccotti has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust in France. Above all, she has illuminated in fascinating detail the extraordinary range of organizational and individual responses.” — Journal of Modern History “Zuccotti’s account investigates the popular responses of the French to the measures offered and implemented by [Vichy] officials... an essential tool for gaining a more complete understanding of Vichy France and the Holocaust” — Anne Higgins,University of Vermont History Review “This is an important work of 20th-century history. It is admirably researched, but remains lucid. It is, of necessity, sometimes harrowing, but illuminates moments of selfless heroism. Above all, it details a period of French history which has for too long been known to foreigners in only the broadest outlines... This is a valuable book deserving a wide readership.” — Morning Star “[Zuccotti’s] book is replete with personal histories and memories, culled from a very wide reading in the growing library of autobiographies, memoirs, and monographs dealing with this period.” — Tony Judt, New York Review of Books


Book Synopsis The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews by : Susan Zuccotti

Download or read book The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews written by Susan Zuccotti and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-16 with total page 660 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the extensive memoir literature of Jews who survived the Nazi period in France, Zuccotti paints a collective portrait of the victims, of those who tried to help them, of those who persecuted them and of the vast majority of French people who looked the other way. Zuccotti concludes that “benign neglect, vague goodwill, and, occasionally, active support” helped three-quarters of French Jews survive, while almost half of foreign-born Jews living under Nazi occupation or in the Vichy government “free” zone were sent to extermination camps with the active help of the French authorities. “Valuable and lucid. [...] Susan Zucccotti's book is admirable in many important ways.” — Patrice Higonnet, New York Times Book Review “Ms. Zuccotti combines vivid narrative with the most scrupulous historical accuracy. It is good to be able to enter the helpful gestures of many French individuals into the scales against the unspeakable actions of many Vichy officials and zealots.” — Robert O. Paxton, Mellon Professor of the Social Sciences, Columbia University, author ofVichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940-1944 “Dr. Zuccotti’s book, admirably balanced and free of bias, is a rich and compassionate study of the plight of Jews in France during World War II.” — Léon Poliakov, Honorary Director of Research, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) “In a vividly narrated reexamination of the historical record, Zuccotti tells the horrifying story of the fate of French Jews at the hands of the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators. [...] A balanced yet heartrending contribution to Holocaust literature.” —Kirkus Review “Zuccotti forces us to rethink the French response to the Holocaust in this challenging book” — Publishers Weekly “By use of precise examples, Zuccotti is able to illustrate the human side and contribute to a new understanding of [the fate of France’s Jewish population during World War II]” — American Historical Review “Ms. Zuccotti finds France to be a nation which, in time of crisis, showed itself to be made up of a handful of villains, a few magnificent heroes and a vast assortment of the cowardly, the apathetic and the self-serving.” — Forward “Zuccotti presents the most comprehensive account of the Holocaust in France available to the English reader.” — Paula Hyman, Yale University, Journal of Interdisciplinary History “An excellent narrative.” — Choice, American Library Association “Zuccotti has made a valuable contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust in France. Above all, she has illuminated in fascinating detail the extraordinary range of organizational and individual responses.” — Journal of Modern History “Zuccotti’s account investigates the popular responses of the French to the measures offered and implemented by [Vichy] officials... an essential tool for gaining a more complete understanding of Vichy France and the Holocaust” — Anne Higgins,University of Vermont History Review “This is an important work of 20th-century history. It is admirably researched, but remains lucid. It is, of necessity, sometimes harrowing, but illuminates moments of selfless heroism. Above all, it details a period of French history which has for too long been known to foreigners in only the broadest outlines... This is a valuable book deserving a wide readership.” — Morning Star “[Zuccotti’s] book is replete with personal histories and memories, culled from a very wide reading in the growing library of autobiographies, memoirs, and monographs dealing with this period.” — Tony Judt, New York Review of Books


The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth–Century France

The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth–Century France

Author: Jay R. Berkovitz

Publisher: Wayne State University Press

Published: 2018-02-05

Total Pages: 349

ISBN-13: 0814344070

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Nineteenth-century French Jewry was a community struggling to meet the challenges of emancipation and modernity. This struggle, with its origins in the founding of the French nation, constitutes the core of modern Jewish identity. With the Revolution of 1789 came the collapse of the social, political, and philosophical foundations of exclusiveness, forcing French society and the Jews to come to terms with the meaning of emancipation. Over time, the enormous challenge that emancipation posed for traditional Jewish beliefs became evident. In the 1830s, a more comprehensive ideology of regeneration emerged through the efforts of younger Jewish scholars and intellectuals. A response to the social and religious implications of emancipation, it was characterized by the demand for the elimination of rituals that violated the French conceptions of civilization and social integration; a drive for greater administrative centralization; and the quest for inter-communal and ethnic unity. In its various elements, regeneration formed a distinct ideology of emancipation that was designed to mediate Jewish interaction with French society and culture. Jay Berkovitz reveals the complexities inherent in the processes of emancipation and modernization, focusing on the efforts of French Jewish leaders to come to terms with the social and religious implications of modernity. All in all, his emphasis on the intellectual history of French Jewry provides a new perspective on a significant chapter of Jewish history.


Book Synopsis The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth–Century France by : Jay R. Berkovitz

Download or read book The Shaping of Jewish Identity in Nineteenth–Century France written by Jay R. Berkovitz and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-05 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteenth-century French Jewry was a community struggling to meet the challenges of emancipation and modernity. This struggle, with its origins in the founding of the French nation, constitutes the core of modern Jewish identity. With the Revolution of 1789 came the collapse of the social, political, and philosophical foundations of exclusiveness, forcing French society and the Jews to come to terms with the meaning of emancipation. Over time, the enormous challenge that emancipation posed for traditional Jewish beliefs became evident. In the 1830s, a more comprehensive ideology of regeneration emerged through the efforts of younger Jewish scholars and intellectuals. A response to the social and religious implications of emancipation, it was characterized by the demand for the elimination of rituals that violated the French conceptions of civilization and social integration; a drive for greater administrative centralization; and the quest for inter-communal and ethnic unity. In its various elements, regeneration formed a distinct ideology of emancipation that was designed to mediate Jewish interaction with French society and culture. Jay Berkovitz reveals the complexities inherent in the processes of emancipation and modernization, focusing on the efforts of French Jewish leaders to come to terms with the social and religious implications of modernity. All in all, his emphasis on the intellectual history of French Jewry provides a new perspective on a significant chapter of Jewish history.


The Betrayal of the Duchess

The Betrayal of the Duchess

Author: Maurice Samuels

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 1541645464

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Fighting to reclaim the French crown for the Bourbons, the duchesse de Berry faces betrayal at the hands of one of her closest advisors in this dramatic history of power and revolution. The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry -- the mother of the eleven-year-old heir to the throne -- hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi. The betrayal became a cause célèbre for Bourbon loyalists and ignited a firestorm of hate against France's Jews. By blaming an entire people for the actions of a single man, the duchess's supporters set the terms for the century of antisemitism that followed. Brimming with intrigue and lush detail, The Betrayal of the Duchess is the riveting story of a high-spirited woman, the charming but volatile young man who double-crossed her, and the birth of one of the modern world's most deadly forms of hatred. !--EndFragment--


Book Synopsis The Betrayal of the Duchess by : Maurice Samuels

Download or read book The Betrayal of the Duchess written by Maurice Samuels and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-04-14 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fighting to reclaim the French crown for the Bourbons, the duchesse de Berry faces betrayal at the hands of one of her closest advisors in this dramatic history of power and revolution. The year was 1832, a cholera pandemic raged, and the French royal family was in exile, driven out by yet another revolution. From a drafty Scottish castle, the duchesse de Berry -- the mother of the eleven-year-old heir to the throne -- hatched a plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty. For months, she commanded a guerilla army and evaded capture by disguising herself as a man. But soon she was betrayed by her trusted advisor, Simon Deutz, the son of France's Chief Rabbi. The betrayal became a cause célèbre for Bourbon loyalists and ignited a firestorm of hate against France's Jews. By blaming an entire people for the actions of a single man, the duchess's supporters set the terms for the century of antisemitism that followed. Brimming with intrigue and lush detail, The Betrayal of the Duchess is the riveting story of a high-spirited woman, the charming but volatile young man who double-crossed her, and the birth of one of the modern world's most deadly forms of hatred. !--EndFragment--


Durkheim and the Jews of France

Durkheim and the Jews of France

Author: Ivan Strenski

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 0226777359

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Ivan Strenski debunks the common notion that there is anything "essentially" Jewish in Durkheim's work. Seeking the Durkheim inside the real world of Jews in France rather than the imagined Jewishness inside Durkheim himself, Strenski adopts a Durkheimian approach to understanding Durkheim's thought. In so doing he shows for the first time that Durkheim's sociology (especially his sociology of religion) took form in relation to the Jewish intellectual life of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France. Strenski begins each chapter by weighing particular claims (some anti-Semitic, some not) for the Jewishness of Durkheim's work. In each case Strenski overturns the claim while showing that it can nonetheless open up a fruitful inquiry into the relation of Durkheim to French Jewry. For example, Strenski shows that Durkheim's celebration of ritual had no innately Jewish source but derived crucially from work on Hinduism by the Jewish Indologist Sylvain Lévi, whose influence on Durkheim and his followers has never before been acknowledged.


Book Synopsis Durkheim and the Jews of France by : Ivan Strenski

Download or read book Durkheim and the Jews of France written by Ivan Strenski and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-04-15 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ivan Strenski debunks the common notion that there is anything "essentially" Jewish in Durkheim's work. Seeking the Durkheim inside the real world of Jews in France rather than the imagined Jewishness inside Durkheim himself, Strenski adopts a Durkheimian approach to understanding Durkheim's thought. In so doing he shows for the first time that Durkheim's sociology (especially his sociology of religion) took form in relation to the Jewish intellectual life of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century France. Strenski begins each chapter by weighing particular claims (some anti-Semitic, some not) for the Jewishness of Durkheim's work. In each case Strenski overturns the claim while showing that it can nonetheless open up a fruitful inquiry into the relation of Durkheim to French Jewry. For example, Strenski shows that Durkheim's celebration of ritual had no innately Jewish source but derived crucially from work on Hinduism by the Jewish Indologist Sylvain Lévi, whose influence on Durkheim and his followers has never before been acknowledged.