Jean-Paul Sartre and The Jewish Question: Anti-antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual (Texts and Contexts)

409 Pages·2007·2.48 MB·English

by  Jonathan Judaken

Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question
Texts and Contexts
general editor
Sander L. Gilman
University of Illinois, Chicago
editorial board
David Bathrick
Cornell University
J. Edward Chamberlin
University of Toronto
Michael Fried
The Johns Hopkins University
Robert Nye
Oregon State University
Nancy Leys Stepan
Wellcome Unit History of Medicine,
Oxford University
Jean-Paul Sartre
and the Jewish Question
Anti-antisemitism and
the Politics of the French Intellectual
Jonathan Judaken
university of nebraska press • lincoln and london
Portions of chapter 1 appeared
previously as “The Mirror Image
and the Politics of Writing: Reflec-
tions on ‘the Jew’ in Sartre’s Ear-
ly Thought,” Historical Reflections/
Réflexions Historiques 25, no. 1
(Spring 1999): 33–59, and “Nation-
alism, Anti-Semitism, and the Pol-
itics of Engagement: Sartre’s Early
Reflections on ‘the Jewish Ques-
tion,’” in Proceedings of the Annu-
al Meeting of the Western Society for
French History: Selected Papers of the
Annual Meeting, volume 24, edited
by Barry Rothaus (Greeley: Uni-
versity Press of Colorado, 2004).
Portions of chapter 6 appeared pre-
viously as “Sartre at 100: Revisit-
ing His Interventions in the Arab- © 2006 by the Board of Regents
Israeli Conflict,” in Antisemitism of the University of Nebraska
International: An Annual Research All rights reserved
Journal of the Vidal Sassoon Interna- Manufactured in the United
tional Center for the Study of Anti- States of America
semitism at the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem [forthcoming], and Library of Congress Cataloging-
“Sartre, Israël et la politique de in-Publication Data
l’intellectuel,” La Règle du Jeu, no. Judaken, Jonathan, 1968–
27 (January 2005): 152–65. Portions Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish
of chapter 7 appeared previously as question : anti-antisemitism and
“May ’68: The Jewish Sub-Text,” in the politics of the French intel-
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of lectual / Jonathan Judaken.
the Western Society for French History: p. cm.—(Texts and contexts)
Selected Papers of the Annual Meeting, Includes bibliographical refer-
volume 30, edited by Barry Rothaus ences and index.
(Greeley: University Press of Colo- isbn-13: 978-0-8032-2612-8
rado, 2004), and “Beauvoir’s Blues, (cloth : alk. paper)
Sartre’s Jews: Reading L’Espoir main- isbn-10: 0-8032-2612-8 (cloth :
tanant,” JRS 6, no.1–2 (2006): 169– alk. paper)
183. Portions of chapter 8 appeared 1. Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905–1980.
previously as “To Be or Not to Be Reflexions sur la question juive.
French: Soixant-huitard Reflec- 2. Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905–1980—
tions on ‘la question juive,’”Journal Criticism and interpretation.
of Modern Jewish Studies 1, no. 1 (April 3. Jews—France—Identity.
2002): 3–21. I. Title.
ds145.s273j83 2006
305.892'4044—dc22
2006021996
Set in Quadraat & Quadraat Sans
by Kim Essman.
Designed by R. W. Boeche
To Julia
in the hope of provoking future Jewish questions

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
French Intellectuals and the Jewish Question 1
1. The Mirror Image and the Politics of Writing
Sartre's Early Reflections on the Jewish Question 23
2. Sartre's Useless Passion
Writing under the German Occupation 49
3. Sartre's Postwar Témoignage
Résistancialismeand the Double Strategy of Forgetting 106
4. Bearing Witness to the Victims of History
Sartre’s Réflexions sur la question juive 123
5. Sartre’s Passion
Engagementand the Project of Universal Emancipation 147
6. On Ambivalent Commitments
Sartre, Israel, and the Politics of the Intellectual 184
7. Sartre’s Final Reflections
Intellectual Politics and the Jewish Question 208
8. The Eternal Return of Sartre
ReadingRéflexions sur la question juivein Postwar France 240
Notes 291
Index 369

Acknowledgments
We pretend that we write alone. We sign the text alone and represent its ideas as
if they were ours alone, as if it was not through discussion, dialogue, and rela-
tionship that thinking and writing happen. This book would not have been pos-
sible, however, without the encouragement and support of my family, friends,
teachers, and colleagues.
It began as a dissertation more than ten years ago at the University of Califor-
nia, Irvine, at a time when the Critical Theory Institute and the presence (dare
one use the term) of Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard on the faculty
made for an invigorating, intellectually adventurous environment. This was
nourished by Mark Poster, my advisor, whose writing on Sartre, poststructural-
ism, and French thought after 1945 has clearly shaped my own lines of inquiry.
I was fortunate to work with David Carroll, whose rigor, depth, and range as
a scholar and whose critical insight and careful reading were exemplary. I am
indebted to Daniel Schroeter, whose arrival at uc Irvine helped inspire the
turn toward a strict focus on French intellectuals and the Jewish Question and
whose Menschlichkeit softened the often-uncomfortable process of completing
a dissertation.
Without Daniel I never would have made it to Hebrew University, and for that
I am eternally grateful. My two years there as a postdoctoral fellow were Edenic.
I learned to value erudition as much as critical theory. I studied at the feet of
scholars (many of whom I will not have the space to mention here) who have
shaped so much of what we understand about the history of Jews and Judaism.
As importantly, I came to understand the fecundity of intellectual community.
Ezra Mendelsohn, whom I was lucky enough to have as a neighbor and who also
served as the head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry, which was my aca-
demic base station, imparted the wisdom that came from a sweet and sardonic
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