Sean Hand

Post-Holocaust France and the Jews, 1945-1955 - Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies Series Sean Hand

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Despite much scholarship on the Holocaust, little has focused on what happened to Europe's Jewish communities after the war. Unlike many other nations, France had a significant post-war Jewish community. This volume offers insights on key aspects of French Jewish life in the following decades. It examines the ways in which moral and political issues of responsibility combined with the urgent problems and practicalities of restoration, and illustrates how national imperatives, international dynamics, and a changed self-perception helped to shape the fortunes of post-war French Judaism. Biographical Note: Steven T. Katz is Slater Professor of Jewish and Holocaust Studies and former Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University. His many publications include The Holocaust in Historical Context. Review Quotes: "This important and much-needed volume brings together an impressive collection of international scholars to tell the complex and fascinating story of postwar France. It is a story of destruction and reconstruction, despair and hope, memory and desire. Not only does this book help us to understand the convoluted relationship between France and the Jews, it deftly enriches our understanding of sociopolitical renewal within the broader context of European transnationalism."-Aaron W. Hughes, author of "The Study of Judaism: Identity, Authenticity, Scholarship"Review Quotes: "This astute and wide-ranging collection captures multiple dimensions of French Jews reactions after World War II to a society that simultaneously had delivered 76,000 of them to death yet saved almost nine-tenths of those who had been born in France. Appearing at a time when the existence of a French Jewish community seems imperiled once more, this book is especially instructive."-Peter Hayes, Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor, Northwestern University"Table of Contents: Contents 1. The Revival of French Jewry in Post- Holocaust France: Challenges and Opportunities 26 David Weinberg 2. Th e Encounter between Native and Immigrant Jews in Post- Holocaust France: Negotiating Diff erence 38 Maud Mandel 3. Centralizing the Political Jewish Voice in Post- Holocaust France: Discretion and Development 58 Samuel Ghiles- Meilhac 4. Post- Holocaust Book Restitutions: How One State Agency Helped Revive Republican Franco- Judaism 71 Lisa Moses Leff 5. Lost Children and Lost Childhoods: Memory in Post- Holocaust France 85 Daniella Doron 6. Orphans of the Shoah and Jewish Identity in Post- Holocaust France: From the Individual to the Collective 118 Susan Rubin Suleiman 7. Jewish Children s Homes in Post- Holocaust France: Personal T.moignages 139 Lucille Cairns 8. Post- Holocaust French Writing: Refl ecting on Evil in 1947 156 Bruno Chaouat vi - Contents 9. L.on Poliakov, the Origins of Holocaust Studies, and Th eories of Anti- Semitism: Rereading Br.viaire de la haine 169 Jonathan Judaken 10. Andr. Neher: A Post- Shoah Prophetic Vocation 193 Edward K. Kaplan "Review Quotes: This important and much-needed volume brings together an impressive collection of international scholars to tell the complex and fascinating story of postwar France. It is a story of destruction and reconstruction, despair and hope, memory and desire. Not only does this book help us to understand the convoluted relationship between France and the Jews, it deftly enriches our understanding of sociopolitical renewal within the broader context of European transnationalism. -Aaron W. Hughes, author of "The Study of Judaism: Identity, Authenticity, Scholarship""Publisher Marketing: 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." Contributor Bio:  Hand, Sean Sean Hand is Professor of French at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of Emmanuel Levinas, Alter Ego: The Critical Writings of Michel Leiris, and Michel Leiris: Writing the Self. Contributor Bio:  Katz, Steven T Steven T. Katz is Slater Professor of Jewish and Holocaust Studies and former Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University. His many publications include The Holocaust in Historical Context.