Albert Memmi: Antisemitism, Colonialism, Racism

From the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals

Albert Memmi, who died in May 2020 at age 99, was born in the Jewish quarter of Tunis and became one of the leading thinkers on colonialism, racism, and Jewish identity. In this essay, Rabbi Marc D. Angel, a Sephardic rabbi and founder of the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals, looks back on his life and ideas.

His life

From Tunis to Paris

Memmi grew up in a community he later described as a ghetto, studied at the Alliance Israélite Universelle school, and fell in love with French language and culture. During the Nazi occupation of Tunisia he was sent to a forced labor camp and escaped. After the war he supported Tunisian independence but found that, as a Jew educated in French, he had no real place in the new nation. He settled in Paris, where he wrote and taught for decades.

His ideas

Oppression and liberation

In books such as The Pillar of Salt, Portrait of a Jew, and The Colonizer and the Colonized, Memmi described how the powerful define and dehumanize those they dominate, and argued that the oppressed must face their situation honestly and take responsibility for their own liberation. For Jews, he believed, that liberation was tied to the State of Israel. He also coined the term heterophobia for the fear and hostility toward anyone who is different.

A rabbi's reflection

Lessons from Memmi

Angel admires Memmi's insight into oppression, while arguing that Memmi never found a confident, joyful Jewish identity. Even so, he writes, Memmi's honesty about prejudice, and his call to accept and respect others as others, still offer important lessons.

Read the full essay at the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals →

This summary was written by JIMENA and is based on “Albert Memmi: Anti-Semitism, Colonialism, Racism” by Rabbi Marc D. Angel, published by the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals. The original essay belongs to its author and the Institute.