What can the individual do in the face of an increasingly complex social reality? It is the question that, as our world undergoes drastic upheavals, cannot fail to arise for each of us. However, just because it needs to be asked does not mean that it is being asked, and even less that a satisfactory answer is being given. This is demonstrated by the feeling of powerlessness currently prevailing in our democracies, which serves as fertile ground for the populist promise of regaining control over reality through its outrageous simplification. But it is also illustrated by two modern myths, one classic and one pop, analyzed by the philosopher Julia Christ. In Goethe’s Faust and the series Breaking Bad, the temptation to escape powerlessness is addressed through a demiurgic act of passage, the destructive side of which is always carried out by a strangely Judaized devil. How can we counter this disastrous slope of modernity, which seems to inevitably unite thought and Jews in a community of sacrificed destiny? Only the social sciences, reconnecting with their original impulse, could prevent our political debacle: by producing an interpretation of the world that allows for its effective transformation, not its negation in the form of enjoyment.
If the feeling of powerlessness results from a poor description of the situation in which we find ourselves, an effective diagnosis opens up the field of possibilities for thoughtful action. The interview with Israeli feminist activist Hadas Ragolsky that we are publishing this week, at a time when the protest against the Netanyahu government is in full swing on the streets of Israel, could have a beneficial effect in this respect. Let’s hope so. It is a chance to read about the decisive issues currently facing Israeli democracy, in a political power struggle that will decide the country’s future. The Jews of the diaspora cannot remain indifferent to these issues, nor can they be content to pay lip service to them. Ragolsky’s stirring appeal serves as a reminder: “The Jews of Europe could well be the last supporters of a democratic Israel”.
“Today, I only feel Jewish,” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, on the occasion of the publication of his book Memories of a Stateless Person, published by Flammarion. We are therefore republishing the interview he gave us last December. He said he felt like ‘a Jew without being Jewish, while being Jewish without being one’. It is worth noting that in the space of a few months, he has become more confident…
