FR197A: ANTISEMITISM IN MODERN FRANCE
The Walter Leventhal Jewish Studies Freshman Seminar in Pluralism and Prejudice
Anyone who closes his eyes to the past is blind to the present.
Richard von Weizsacker (1985)
When knowledge comes, memory comes too, little by little.
Knowledge and
memory are one and the same thing.
Gustav Meyrink
Description and objectives of course:
This seminar will examine antisemitism in France from the Revolution of 1789 to the present. While France (along with England and the United States) is the country most closely associated with the concept of human rights, and while France was one of the first countries to grant citizenship to its Jews (1791), France is also the nation that witnessed an unprecedented outbreak of violent antisemitism during the Dreyfus Affair, and from which, during World War II, 75,000 Jews were deported, with the complicity of the French government.
How can this paradox be explained? To answer this question, our seminar will probe a number of related issues. Some of these are specific to France: why did antisemitism at times flare up so violently in France? What are the roots of French antisemitism? How has prejudice against Jews in France differed from or resembled that directed against its other religious and ethnic minorities (Protestants and Muslims, for example)? Through what means, and relying on what stereotypes, has antisemitism been disseminated throughout French history? With which other ideologies (e.g. anti-communism, anti-republicanism) has antisemitism allied itself? In posing this first set of questions, we will be pursuing one goal of the seminar: to consider antisemitism in France as a touchstone for understanding French culture and history. At the same time, we will examine the French case to gain a deeper understanding of antisemitism as a more diffuse, transnational phenomenon. In this context we will ask: What is antisemitism, in all its varieties (economic, political, religious, racial, etc.)? How does antisemitism compare/contrast with other prejudices? How can antisemitism most effectively be combatted? Throughout the course, we will make comparisons with the American and other cases to highlight pertinent similarities and differences between the two historical experiences.
It is hoped, in the end, that this course will promote understanding of both the complexity and the continued relevance of issues of "pluralism and prejudice" by examining their development in a particular cultural context and at widely varying historical moments.
As a freshman seminar, this course has several additional objectives:
*Develop critical thinking, writing and research skills necessary to
succeed at the university level.
*Provide an opportunity, in a small, intimate classroom setting, to
address concerns particular to first-year university students.
*Provide a forum for discussing ties between the seminar and its two
paired courses.
Required texts:
*Kofman, Sarah. Rue Ordener, rue Labat (purchase at Svoboda's
Books, corner of Beaver and Burrowes Sts.)
*Marrus, Michael and Robert Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews (purchase
at Svoboda's Books)
*Packet for the second half of the semester (purchase at University Book
Center on campus)
*Additional readings will be distributed in class and also made available
in the Reserve Reading Room
*It is suggested that you purchase one of the following two books to help provide you with background in French history: Gordon Wright, France in Modern Times (purchase at Penn State Bookstore on campus) or Guillaume Berthier de Sauvigny, History of France (purchase at Penn State Bookstore or Student Bookstore, College Ave.)
Requirements and grading:
*Participation (30%) - The essence of a seminar is lively and informed discussion and exchange among its members. Your presence and participation in class meetings is therefore imperative; more than three unexpected absences from class may be detrimental to your grade. You should come to class prepared to discuss assigned readings, including your own questions about and reactions to them as well as the related "discussion questions" I will often distribute ahead of time. During the semester, class participation may take the form of involvement in debates.
Oral research report (20%) - During the last weeks of class, students will present a research report, done in pairs, on one of the topics listed at the end of the syllabus. They will be responsible for selecting readings for the class on their subject, and for leading the class discussion.
*Journal (25%) - For this seminar you will keep a journal to record your responses to your class readings. Using a reading or group of readings as a point of departure, you may choose, in your journal entry, to do any of the following: comment, react, agree or disagree with a specific theme, phrase, problem, image, key word etc.; relate a reading or group of readings to our class discussions, to material from ENG15 or SOC3 (or another course), to current events, to your personal experience, etc. Journal entries can take a variety of forms: be imaginative! They should be typed (if possible) and approximately 250-700 words (1 to 2 1/2 pages) long.
*Quizzes (25%) - Three brief (approx. 20 minutes) quizzes on course material.
* * * * * * *
**Syllabus subject to modification.
August
27 Seminar overview and introduction
Antisemitism in France: The Historical and Cultural Background
29 Definitions: What is Antisemitism?
"Antisemitism: A Definition," in Richard S. Levy, Antisemitism in the Modern World
September
1 Labor Day -- No class
3 Definitions: continued
Jean-Paul Sartre, Anti-Semite and Jew (1948), pp. 7-54.
5 Jews in France from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
8 Robert Wistrich, Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred, chs. 1-3
10 Documents concerning the treatment of Jews in France during the Middle Ages, in R. Chazan, Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages
The Englightenment and the French Revolution
12 Voltaire, Treatise on Toleration (1763) and "Jews," Philosophical Dictionary (1764);
15 Isaac de Pinto, "An Apology for the Jewish Nation" (1762); Voltaire, "Reply to Pinto" (1762); Jacob Katz, "Voltaire," From Prejudice to Destruction: Antisemitism 1700-1933.
17 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789); Documents 19 concerning the debate over Jewish citizenship in L. Hunt, The French Revolution and
22 Human Rights, pp. 91-101; "The Poor and the Propertied," in Hunt; Abbé Grégoire, "Memoir in Favor of the People of Color or Mixed-Race of Saint-Domingue" (1789); Condorcet, "On the Admission of Women to the Right of Citizenship" (1790); Prudhomme, "On the Influence of the Revolution on Women" (1791)
24 Quiz #1
The Nineteenth Century: The Golden Age of French Jewry?
26 Léon Poliakov, History of Antisemitism, v. 3, pp.
Alphonse Toussenel, "The Jews: Kings of the Epoch" (1845)
The Dreyfus Affair
29 Overview of the Affair/What is an "antisemitic Affair?"
Chronology of the Dreyfus Affair
"Introduction," Albert Lindemann, The Jew Accused: Three Antsemitic
Affairs
October
1 Popular Antisemitism and the Dreyfus Affair
Edouard Drumont, "Jewish France" (1886) and The Jews against
France (1889)
Michael Marrus, "Popular Antisemitism," The Dreyfus Affair:
Art, Truth, Conscience, 50-61; Robert Byrnes, Antisemitism
in Modern France (on Drumont), 136-55.
3 Popular Antsemitism II: Caricature
Sander Gilman, The Jew's Body (excerpt)
Examples of antisemitism caricatures from the Dreyfus Affair
6 Emile Zola: "A Plea for the Jews" (1896); "Letter to the Youth
of France" (1897);
["Letter to M. Félix Faure ('J'Accuse...!')"]
Viewing of "J'Accuse" and other documents in Rare Book Room,
Pattee Library/Meet at front entrance to Pattee
8 Presentation on LIAS and research resources by Kim Fisher, Humanities Librarian, Pattee Library/Meet at front entrance to Pattee
The Interwar and Vichy Eras/The Holocaust
10 The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1898); excerpts from Marcel Ophuls, The Sorrow 15 and the Pity (film); Marrus and Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews, Introduction and 3-71.
13 Guest: Rabbi Jonathan Brown, Congregation Brit Shalom, State College
17 No class
20 Marrus and Paxton, 73-119; Xavier Vallat, Gabriel Malglaive, "Jewish or French?" (1942); texts of French laws concerning the Jews (1942).
Guest: Mrs. Ruth Leventhal Nathanson
22 Marrus and Paxton, 123-177; Film: Louis Malle, Au Revoir, les Enfants; Pierre 24 Colombat, The Holocaust in French Film, 261-87; Serge Klarsfeld, French Children of the Holocaust: A Memorial
27 Quiz #2
29 Marrus and Paxton, 179-214; Sarah Kofman, Rue Ordener, rue Labat
31 Marrus and Paxton, 217-79; Film: Joseph Losey, Monsieur Klein; Pierre Colombat, Nov.
3 The Holocaust in French Film, 288-97
5 French Jewish Responses to the Holocaust
Marrus and Paxton, 283-339.
7 Film: Pierre Sauvage, Weapons of the Spirit; Colombat,
The Holocaust in French Film, 345-65; Marrus and Paxton, 343-72.
Guest: Dr. Richard Bord
November
10 Guest: Mrs. Anette Berman
Questions of Antisemitism in Contemporary France
12 History, Memory, and the Holocaust
14 The Touvier Affair
Henry Rousso, The Vichy Syndrome, Intro. and pp. 114-26, 147-51;
selections from R. Golsan, ed., Memory, the Holocaust,
and French Justice; articles on the trial of Byron de
la Beckwith
Revisionism
17 Pierre Vidal-Naquet, "A Paper Eichmann," in Assassins of Memory; Deborah 19 Lipstadt, "Canaries in the Mine," Denying the Holocaust; Examples of revisionist propaganda
Quiz #3 will be done at home.
Jews and Arabs
21 Film: "La Haine" ("Hatred"); Richard Bernstein, "Jew, Arabs, and other 24 'Foreigners,'" A Fragile Glory
[26]
28 Thanksgiving break -- No class
Michael Marrus, "Are the French Antisemitic? Evidence in the 1980s," Malino and Wasserstein, eds., The Jews in Modern France, pp. 224-42
December
For the remaining two weeks of the semester we will continue to discuss questions of antisemitism in contemporary France. Topics and readings to be determined, based on the interests of seminar members. Some possible topics include:
*Jean-Marie Le Pen (head of the National Front, a right-wing political
party) and antisemitism/Possible comaparison w/other European extreme right-wing
parties;
*The 1969 "rumor of Orléans" (fictitious report about
young women being abducted and sold into white slavery by Jews);
*The French Jewish commemoration of the bicentennial of the French Revolution (1989);
*The 1980 bombing of a major Paris synagogue (rue Copernic);
*The 1982 bombing of Goldenberg's restaurant in Paris;
*The 1992 desecration of a Jewish cemetary in Carpentras
*French foreign policy toward Israel (1945-present);
*The Barbie trial; the Bousquet Affair;
*The abbé Pierre's controversial statements about the Holocaust;
*President François Mitterrand's refusal to issue a formal
apology for crimes committed by and during the Vichy regime;
*The 1994 commemmoration of the Vel d'Hiv roundup;
*French intellectuals and anti-Semitism;
*Antisemitism in France/Antisemitism in Europe, and the world,
today