Jews Among the Nations

Such is the theme of the 6th Congress of the Federation of Humanistic and Secular Jews¹, which meets every two years in a capital city and, for the first time, in Paris. The choice of Paris — after Detroit, Brussels, Jerusalem, and Moscow — was motivated by the international Federation’s wish to support the secular Jewish current in France: a dynamic current, since in a few years it has given rise to the creation of numerous associations, among them the AJHL (Association of Humanistic and Secular Jews), which offer a genuine secular Jewish alternative. It is in this way that a great many Jews of France, anxious to affirm a cultural attachment to Judaism as a common denominator, have joined this current and find expression within it.

The previous themes — “Who is a Jew?”, “The Future of the Jewish People”, “Humanism”, “What does it mean to be a Jew?” — proposed a secular reflection on Jewish identity; an approach that presupposes, precisely, a gaze open onto society. Beyond a feeling of belonging (or not) to a common destiny, Jews have been and remain fully engaged in the history of the world and in the ideas of their contemporaries. This is why, far from thinking of ourselves as a closed world among others, we wished to place the emphasis on the secular Jewish vision of the relationship to the other — as an individual, as a group, and as a nation; a relationship often presented as essential in Jewish thought. The question will be raised, over the course of the sessions, in its various aspects — social, political, cultural — which we face and will continue to face at the dawn of the twenty-first century. On the individual plane, the debate will turn on multicultural families. What just relationship will Israel manage to find with its neighbors, answering thereby so many hopes for peace? What actions can be taken to combat nationalist excesses and fundamentalisms, in the Middle East as in Europe? Finally, on the collective plane — in the light of the experience of Jews living as a minority in the countries of the diaspora, or as a majority in Israel — the speakers will evoke various types of society (multicultural society, secular society, or the juxtaposition of rights-bearing groups) and will ask which of them best guarantees respect for the other. The question takes on its full pertinence at a moment when France is reflecting on its national identity — when some invoke the baptism of Clovis as an essential fact of its national history, while others demand respect for republican laïcité (secularism). Without claiming to offer ready-made solutions, the participants — who have come from several countries — will attempt, through the confrontation of ideas, to open up a few paths.

Paris, 20 September 1996

Violette Attal-Lefi