In the aftermath of the Holocaust, French Jews faced the daunting task of rebuilding their communities, institutions, and sense of identity after the devastation of war and genocide. Why did so many Jews choose to remain in France despite the trauma of persecution? What role did American Jews play in helping reconstruct Jewish life in postwar France?

In this lecture, historian Laura Hobson Faure explores these critical questions, drawing from her book, A "Jewish Marshall Plan": The American-Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (winner of a National Jewish Book award). Through financial aid, cultural support, and institution-building, American Jewish organizations played a pivotal role in revitalizing French Jewish life. Yet, the decision to stay in France—rather than emigrate to Israel or the United States—was not just about material recovery. It was a deliberate act of reclaiming identity, belonging, and a future in the country that had betrayed so many of its Jewish citizens.

This discussion will also connect these historical dynamics to contemporary concerns. As antisemitism resurges in France and across the world, questions about Jewish belonging, safety, and the resilience of Jewish communities remain pressing. Just as postwar French Jews grappled with their place in the nation, today's Jewish communities—both in France and the U.S.—face renewed debates about where and how they can thrive. The past offers a powerful lens for understanding the choices, challenges, and agency of Jewish communities confronting upheaval.

In addition to A "Jewish Marshall Plan," Laura Hobson Faure is the author of Who Will Rescue Us?: The Story of the Jewish Children who Fled to France and America During the Holocaust, the first account of Jewish children's flight from Nazi Germany to France—and their subsequent escape to America from the Vichy regime, published by Yale University Press on April 8, 2025.

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Jewish communities in modern France have developed rich cultural traditions and faced waves of persecution, responding not only with armed resistance but also with cultural resilience and intellectual defiance. During World War II, French Jews resisted the Vichy regime and the Nazi occupation in multiple ways—through underground networks, acts of defiance, and the spreading of Jewish teachings both religious and secular. In this lecture, historian Sally Charnow explores the diverse forms of Jewish resistance in wartime France, drawing from her book, Edmond Fleg and Jewish Minority Culture in Twentieth-Century France (2021), to highlight how cultural survival became a form of defiance.

Edmond Fleg, a Jewish intellectual and writer, envisioned Jewish identity and learning as essential tools of resistance. Through his work with the Jewish scouts he demonstrated how storytelling, education, and communal solidarity could serve as powerful counters to oppression. His thinking was also broadly ecumenical and he created strong bonds across communities in France. Fleg's approach underscores an urgent lesson for modern Jewish activism: resistance is not only about survival—it is about shaping the future. Today, as antisemitism and other forms of hate and xenophobia are amplified in political rhetoric, online spaces, and even violent attacks, American Jews are once again faced with the task of nurturing their cultural identity and forming cross-communal ties while pushing back against hostility. The history of Jewish resistance in France provides a blueprint for modern advocacy efforts, emphasizing the power of cultural and intellectual resistance, coalition-building strategies for survival and the need for Jewish engagement in advocating for social justice in a vibrant democratic republic.

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France has long been a land of paradox for its Jewish citizens, offering both the promise of equality and the reality of exclusion. Since the French Revolution, the nation has grappled with integrating minorities within its universalist republican framework, leading to a complex and ambivalent relationship with its Jewish population. In this lecture, historian Maurice Samuels delves into France's unique trajectory of antisemitism, exploring how the nation's ideals of universalism have both challenged and marginalized Jewish identity.

Drawing from his extensive research on 19th-century French Jewish history, including his award-winning book The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews, Samuels examines the evolution of antisemitism from the post-revolutionary era to the present. He will discuss the rise of the so-called "new antisemitism," characterized by its distinct features in contemporary France, and analyze the nation's responses to this persistent issue.

By focusing on the factors that make the French case unique, this lecture offers a nuanced understanding of the challenges and contradictions inherent in France's approach to diversity and minority inclusion. As antisemitism resurges globally, reflecting on France's past and present provides valuable insights into the future of Jewish life within universalist societies.

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How do societies remember atrocity? What forms should public memorials take, and how do they evolve over time? In this visually rich lecture, James Young traces what he calls the "arc of memorial vernacular," exploring the origins and transformations of Holocaust and atrocity memorialization in both Europe and the United States.

Beginning with France's Memorial to the Deportees in Paris, Young will examine how early Holocaust memorials established conventions for public remembrance. He will then follow the development of this memorial language through Maya Lin's Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington, D.C., the rise of counter-monuments in Germany, and the Denkmal in Berlin. The discussion will culminate in contemporary memorial forms, including green memorials in Germany and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (the "lynching memorial") in Montgomery, Alabama, reflecting on how these sites expand our understanding of collective memory and public reckoning.

Drawing from his book The Stages of Memory: Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between (2016), as well as his latest research, Young will explore how the design, intent, and reception of memorials continue to shift in response to historical and political currents. What should a memorial do? Who is it for? And how do different societies confront their pasts through public art? By placing Holocaust memory in conversation with other forms of memorialization, this lecture provides a framework for understanding how historical trauma is remembered—and reinterpreted—in contemporary society.

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Assimilation is often understood as a process in which minority groups integrate into the dominant national culture. But in post-revolutionary France, assimilation was not just a social phenomenon—it was a tool of state control, shaping the legal and political status of minority communities. In this lecture, historian Adi Saleem examines the complex and often contradictory role of assimilation in French history by comparing two key moments: the debates surrounding the emancipation of Jews before, during, and after the French Revolution, and the shifting legal status of Algerian Jews and Muslims in the early colonial period.

The revolutionary era marked a turning point in Jewish history, as France became the first European country to grant Jews full citizenship. Yet this emancipation came with conditions: Jews were expected to relinquish communal autonomy and redefine their identity within the framework of the French Republic. Decades later, during France's colonial expansion, a similar dynamic played out in Algeria. In 1870, the Crémieux Decree granted French citizenship to Algerian Jews, while excluding the majority Muslim population—a decision that underscored the strategic use of assimilation to reinforce state power and racial hierarchies.

By comparing these historical moments, this lecture challenges conventional narratives of assimilation as a natural or voluntary process. Instead, it highlights how the state has used assimilation to reshape minority identities, manage political belonging, and consolidate national unity. These themes continue to resonate today, raising important questions about the boundaries of inclusion, the pressures of cultural conformity, and the ongoing tensions between national identity and minority rights.

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In the years between the world wars, Paris became an unexpected center for Yiddish culture, home to a thriving community of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who sought to carve out a place for themselves in French society while maintaining their distinct identity. At the heart of this cultural movement was the 1937 Paris World's Fair, where the Modern Jewish Culture Pavilion showcased a vision of Jewish life that embraced both Yiddish heritage and French republican ideals.

In this lecture, historian Nick Underwood explores the ways in which Yiddish-speaking Jews in interwar France navigated questions of belonging, pluralism, and political engagement. Drawing from his book Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar France (Indiana University Press, 2022), Underwood highlights key institutions—Yiddish theaters, cultural associations, and intellectual networks—that flourished during this period, fostering a unique synthesis of Jewish and French identity.

The story of Yiddish Paris offers striking parallels to contemporary debates about multiculturalism, integration, and national identity. How did Jewish immigrants assert their place in France while maintaining linguistic and cultural distinctiveness? What tensions arose between different Jewish factions over the role of Yiddish, Zionism, and antifascism? And what can this history teach us about the broader challenges of minority communities striving for recognition and inclusion today?

By examining this vibrant yet often overlooked chapter of Jewish and French history, this talk provides a lens for understanding both the possibilities and limitations of cultural pluralism—then and now.

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For more than two centuries, French intellectuals have shaped and contested the meaning of Jewish identity, belonging, and exclusion. From the Enlightenment to the present, France has been both a beacon of Jewish emancipation and a crucible for modern antisemitism. In this lecture, historian Jonathan Judaken traces the evolving discourse around the "Jewish Question" in French intellectual life, exploring how key moments—such as the French Revolution, the Dreyfus Affair, the rise of fascism, and the Holocaust—have influenced national debates on Jewish inclusion, nationalism, and political belonging.

France's intellectual legacy is paradoxical: it incubated some of the most virulent strains of modern antisemitism while also producing powerful defenders of Jewish rights and dignity. The Dreyfus Affair redefined the role of the public intellectual, with figures like Émile Zola mobilizing the ideals of justice against antisemitic nationalism. Later, French fascists drove collaboration with the Nazis, while leftist intellectuals resisted, shaping postwar narratives of Jewish identity and universalism. The conversation continued into the late 20th century, as French intellectuals increasingly engaged with the question of Israel, shifting from strong support in the wake of the Holocaust to more complex, often critical, positions following the Six-Day War.

This lecture will not only examine these historical debates but also consider their ongoing resonance. The tensions that shaped French intellectual life—between universalist ideals and the reality of Jewish difference, between support for Israel and critiques of nationalism—remain central to contemporary discourse on Jews in France, the U.S., and beyond. As antisemitism resurges and political alignments shift, understanding these historical patterns provides essential insight into today's challenges of Jewish identity, political belonging, and the broader struggle for justice.

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For well over a century, American Jews have confronted the tension between assimilation and cultural preservation. When Israel Zangwill's play The Melting Pot premiered in 1908, it popularized the idea of that ethnic differences would dissolve into a unified American identity. But for many Jewish writers and thinkers, this vision sparked concern: Would "melting" into America mean the loss of Jewish religion and culture?

In this lecture, historian Daniel Greene explores the evolution of the melting pot metaphor and its alternatives, tracing the emergence of cultural pluralism—which envisions the nation as a federation of diverse ethnic groups, each maintaining its heritage while participating in a shared civic culture. Drawing from his book,The Jewish Origins of Cultural Pluralism: The Menorah Association and American Diversity, Greene examines how American Jews helped shape ideas of pluralism and influenced present-day debates about national identity, multiculturalism, and diversity.

The concerns Jewish intellectuals raised a century ago about preserving Jewish distinctiveness within a diverse society continue to resonate. Today, American Jews navigate new pressures surrounding religious identity, political affiliations, and the evolving boundaries of inclusion in multicultural spaces. As cultural and political landscapes shift, this lecture asks: How might knowing the history of cultural pluralism help us navigate the future of Jewish identity in America?

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Long before the Jewish expulsion from France in 1394, Paris was home to a thriving Jewish community, deeply embedded in the city's intellectual, economic, and religious life. Though much of that history has been obscured by time, its traces remain in medieval records, archaeological discoveries, and the streets of Paris itself. In this immersive virtual tour, historian David Shyovitz reconstructs the world of medieval Jewish Paris, exploring its vibrant culture, its struggles under Christian rule, and the forces that ultimately led to its disappearance. Drawing on historical texts, maps, and contemporary scholarship, this talk will bring medieval Jewish Paris to life, and explore broader themes of persecution, resilience, and the shifting place of Jews in medieval Europe.

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