Tra, e oltre, Atene, Auschwitz e Gerusalemme. Perdono e coscienza ebraica ne Le Juif et le Noir di Eliane Amado Lévy-Valensi

An unconventional women thinker, Éliane Amado Lévy-Valensi (1919—2006) may rightly be seen to fit in that ‘between’ which for centuries has been uniting and separating Athens and Jerusalem: not only did she have a double education and a double ‘destination’, but she soon overcame certain oppositions, by asking herself what philosophy might lose or gain in exploring the ancient root of Judaism in all its richness, and how the latter might be renewed and brought to new life through a philosophical approach. One essential stage in her investigation on this ‘between’ – also shared by other authors from the École Juive de Paris – is Auschwitz, a linchpin for Jewish philosophy in its ‘after’ stage. What is unique to Amado Lévy-Velensi’s thought is her attempt to go beyond Athens, Auschwitz, and Jerusalem, as is especially illustrated by the text Le Juif e le Noir (1963) analysed here. By setting out from the topic of forgiveness and Jewish consciousness, the philosopher broadens her perspective beyond what she regards as essential cultural frontiers, to the point of touching upon the colonial and post-colonial world, in an effort to philosophically grasp attitudes common to both antisemitism and racism, and even revealing the underlying mechanisms at work in the latent racist tendencies of the White Jewish male. Through the topic of forgiveness, the philosopher – and through her the present writer – observe and critically scrutinise that dangerous game of mirrors and reflections, identification and distinction, which leads the antisemite to hate the Jew, the Jew to fear the antisemite, the Jew to feel racial contempt for the Black man, and the Black man to grant forgiveness and trust towards the Jew.