Jean-Christophe Attias

Jean-Christophe Attias (born 1958) is a French Jewish historian and scholar.

He is a professor of medieval Jewish thought at the École pratique des hautes études (PSL University, Paris).

Education and Academic Career

Jean-Christophe Attias studied philosophy (at the University of Paris-I) and Hebrew (at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations). He was a doctoral fellow of the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust at the Department of Jewish History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem during 1988-1989. He holds the CAPES (1980) and the agrégation (1987) in Modern Hebrew.

He defended a doctoral thesis in Hebrew studies titled "Knowledge and Power in Constantinople: Mordekhai Komtino, Exegete-Teacher (15th Century)" at the University of Paris-VIII (1990). He obtained a habilitation to supervise research by presenting a thesis titled "Judaism and Liminality: Contributions to the Intellectual and Literary History of Medieval Judaism" before a jury composed of Maurice Kriegel (EHESS, guarantor), Michel Tardieu (Collège de France, president), Michael Löwy (CNRS), Aron Rodrigue (Stanford University), and Colette Sirat (EPHE) (1997, EHESS).

He taught Modern Hebrew for about ten years in secondary education before becoming a researcher at CNRS, member of the Center for the Study of the Religions of the Book (CNRS-EPHE) from 1991 to 1998. In 1998, he was elected professor at the Section of Religious Sciences of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, holding the chair of "Medieval Jewish Thought (6th–17th centuries)," succeeding Charles Touati.

A specialist in the history of medieval Jewish exegesis of Scripture, Jean-Christophe Attias has published his initial works on authors from the late Middle Ages (15th–16th centuries) belonging to the Mediterranean area (Byzantium and the Iberian Peninsula). Since then, he has broadened the chronological, geographical, and thematic scope of his research. As a historian of culture and representations, he has, among other interests, focused on the figure of the proselyte in rabbinic Judaism, the "margins" of Judaism (late Karaism), the place of the "Land of Israel" in Jewish memory, and the role of the Bible in Jewish culture and imagination. He published a portrait titled "Moïse fragile" (Alma, 2015, winner of the Goncourt Prize for Biography 2015, reissued in paperback by CNRS Éditions, 2016).

Institutional Responsibilities

Jean-Christophe Attias is first the deputy director, and then the director (since 2018) of the Alberto Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural History of Jews at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE), a component of the Research Unit 8596 (CNRS-Sorbonne University-EPHE). From 2011 to 2015, he served as president of the Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Religious Sciences Commission of the National Book Center.

Associative Engagement

Involved in the fight against racism and discrimination, he is a co-founder of Pari(s) du vivre-ensemble. In 2006, with Esther Benbassa, he was awarded the Seligmann Prize against Racism for the collective work "Jews and Muslims: A Shared History, A Dialogue to Build."

Personal Life

He was born to a Jewish father from Algeria (who arrived in mainland France in 1946) and a Catholic mother from Charente. He is married to Esther Benbassa, Emerita Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études and formerly senator for Europe Écologie Les Verts (until December 2021, when she left this party), with whom he has co-authored several works.

Research interests

History of the Jewish exegesis of the Bible in the Middle Ages, especially in the XVth-XVIth Century Mediterranean (Spain and Byzantium), exegesis as a literary genre. History of culture and representations : the image of the proselyte in Jewish culture, Judaism and its « margins » (such as Karaism), the place of the « Land f Israel » in Jewish memory, etc. Place and function of the Bible in Jewish culture and imagination. Moses in Jewish and general culture. Judaism and Nature.

Works

In English Israel, the Impossible Land, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2003 (with Esther Benbassa) The Jews and their Future. A Conversation on Jewish Identities, London, Zed Books, 2004 (with E. Benbassa) The Jew and the Other, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2004 (with E. Benbassa) The Jews and the Bible, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2014; A Woman Called Moses. A Prophet for Our Time, Verso, 2020.

In French

Abraham Aboulafia. L'épître des sept voies, Paris, Éditions de l'Éclat, 1985 (translation and notes); new ed., Paris, Éditions de l'Éclat, 2008 Le Commentaire biblique. Mordekhai Komtino ou l'herméneutique du dialogue, Paris, Cerf, 1991 Isaac Abravanel, la mémoire et l'espérance, Paris, Cerf, 1992 Penser le judaïsme, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2010; new revised and enlarged ed, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2013 Les Juifs et la Bible, Paris, Fayard, 2012; new ed., Paris, Cerf, 2014 Moïse fragile, Paris, Alma, 2015; new ed., Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2016 Un juif de mauvaise foi, Paris, Lattès, 2017 Nos Conversations célestes, Paris, Alma, 2020 (novel)

With Esther Benbassa

Dictionnaire de civilisation juive, Paris, Larousse-Bordas, 1997; 2nd ed.,1998 Israël imaginaire, Paris, Flammarion, 1998; 2nd ed., 2001 (sous le titre Israël, la terre et le sacré) Les Juifs ont-ils un avenir ?, Paris, Lattès, 2001; 2nd ed., Paris, Hachette, coll. « Pluriel », 2002 Le Juif et l’Autre, Gordes, Le Relié, 2002 Petite histoire du judaïsme, Paris, Librio, 2007 Dictionnaire des mondes juifs, Paris, Larousse, 2008 Israël-Gaza. La Conscience juive a l'épreuve des massacres, Paris, Textuel, 2024

Editor

De la Conversion, Paris, Cerf, 1998 Enseigner le judaïsme à l'Université, Genève, Labor et Fides, 1998 (withPierre Gisel) La haine de soi. Difficiles identités, Bruxelles, Complexe, 2000 (withEsther Benbassa) Messianismes. Variations autour d’une figure juive, Genève, Labor et Fides, 2000 (with Pierre Gisel and Lucie Kaennel) De la Bible à la littérature, Genève, Labor et Fides, 2003 (with Pierre Gisel) Juifs et musulmans. Une histoire partagée, un dialogue à construire, Paris, La Découverte, 2006 (with Esther Benbassa) Les Sépharades et l’Europe. De Maïmonide à Spinoza, Paris, Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne, 2012 Encyclopédie des religions, Paris, Fayard/Pluriel, 2012 (with Esther Benbassa) Dans les quartiers, l’égalité c’est maintenant ! Livre blanc, Paris, Le Pari(s) du Vivre-Ensemble, 2014 (with Esther Benbassa) Juifs et musulmans. Retissons les liens!, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2015 (with Esther Benbassa) Nouvelles relégations territoriales, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2017 (with Esther Benbassa)

Awards

Seligmann Award against Racism, Injustice and Intolérance (2006). Prix Goncourt de la Biographie for Moïse fragile (2015).