Jean-Christophe Attias


Jean-Christophe Attias is a French Jewish historian and scholar.
He is a professor of medieval Jewish thought at the École pratique des hautes études.
Education and Academic Career
Jean-Christophe Attias studied philosophy and Hebrew. 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 and the agrégation in Modern Hebrew.
He defended a doctoral thesis in Hebrew studies titled "Knowledge and Power in Constantinople: Mordekhai Komtino, Exegete-Teacher " at the University of Paris-VIII. 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, Michel Tardieu, Michael Löwy, Aron Rodrigue, and Colette Sirat .
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 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," 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 belonging to the Mediterranean area. 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, 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".
Institutional Responsibilities
Jean-Christophe Attias is first the deputy director, and then the director of the Alberto Benveniste Center for Sephardic Studies and the Sociocultural History of Jews at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, a component of the Research Unit 8596. 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 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 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, with whom he has co-authored several works.
WWW jeanchristopheattias.net𝕏 JCAttias

Research interests

  • History of the Jewish exegesis of the Bible in the Middle Ages, especially in the XVth-XVIth Century Mediterranean, exegesis as a literary genre.
  • History of culture and representations : the image of the proselyte in Jewish culture, Judaism and its « margins », 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 The Jews and their Future. A Conversation on Jewish Identities, London, Zed Books, 2004 The Jew and the Other, Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2004 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 ; new ed., Paris, Éditions de l'Éclat, 2008Le Commentaire biblique. Mordekhai Komtino ou l'herméneutique du dialogue, Paris, Cerf, 1991Isaac Abravanel, la mémoire et l'espérance, Paris, Cerf, 1992Penser le judaïsme, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2010 ; new revised and enlarged ed, Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2013Les Juifs et la Bible, Paris, Fayard, 2012 ; new ed., Paris, Cerf, 2014Moïse fragile, Paris, Alma, 2015 ; new ed., Paris, CNRS Éditions, 2016Un juif de mauvaise foi, Paris, Lattès, 2017Nos Conversations célestes, Paris, Alma, 2020

With Esther Benbassa

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

Editor

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

Awards

  • Seligmann Award against Racism, Injustice and Intolérance.
  • Prix Goncourt de la Biographie for Moïse fragile.