Can Jewish thought be decolonial after the Shoah? Elad Lapidot's groundbreaking study State of Others examines the complex connections between Jewish philosophy after the Holocaust and postcolonial theory, using Emmanuel Levinas as an example. While critics accuse the French-Lithuanian philosopher of Eurocentrism, Lapidot shows that Levinas laid the foundations for decolonial Jewish thought as early as the 1960s. In doing so, he analyzes a decisive turning point in Levinas' work around 1968 that redefined the relationship between Judaism and Western civilization – from the idea of Israel as the embodiment of Western values to an understanding of the Jewish state as the radical other of the West.
Lapidot's innovative interpretation reveals how the ethics of the other can lead to decolonial nation-state politics. As a provocative contribution to current debates on Judaism, Zionism, and decolonization, he opens up new perspectives on one of the most influential philosophies of the 20th century.
Non-fiction
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Elad Lapidot, born in Jerusalem in 1976, is a professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Lille. He conducts research on political epistemology in contemporary philosophy and in the Talmudic tradition of thought. His previous book pulished by Matthes & Seitz Berlin: Anti-Anti-Semitism: A Philosophical Critique (2021) has been published in English by State University of New York Press.
