Esther Benbassa, born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1950. Ph.D. from the University of Paris VIII and Doctorat d’État ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines from the University of Paris III. Professor of Modern Jewish History at École Pratique des Hautes Études, Sorbonne, and Director of the Alberto Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and Culture, Paris.
Fellow (1 September 2004 – 30 June 2005)
THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS MEMORY IN THE LONG HISTORY OF JEWISH SUFFERING AND THE JEWISH MEMORY OF SUFFERING
I edited the proceedings of an international conference I organised in Paris in March 2003, Les Sépharades en littérature. Un parcours millénaire, which was published in January 2005 by the Presses universitaires de Paris-Sorbonne (PUPS). In addition, I completed an analysis of archival material I had already collected and researched secondary sources and scholarly literature for the book I am currently preparing on La Souffrance comme identité [Suffering as Identity], which will be published by Fayard (Paris), in 2006. The first part of the book is now written and I hope to complete the other two parts during the next academic year.
My colleague Jean-Christophe Attias and I prepared a new book, Repères pour un enseignement du fait religieux [Landmarks for a Teaching of Religions in Secondary Schools] (Fayard) that we are editing with contributions from twenty-one scholars. I had many opportunities to give lectures and to attend various conferences and workshops, here and abroad, in France, in Spain, as well as in Israel.
I also spent time in preparing Le Pari(s) du Vivre-Ensemble: a week of cultural manifestations against discrimination and for coexistence (lectures, conferences, exhibitions, photo and literary contests, round-tables, etc.) that will be held in Paris, 19-26 March, 2006, with the support of the Municipality of Paris and Unesco. I published twenty-four papers in journals, newspapers, and books. One of my papers was translated into Dutch, as was my book written with Jean-Christophe Attias: Le Juif et l’Autre; Dutch title: [De jood en de ander], Bert Bakker, June 2005.