This book has been edited by D. Schnapper (former member of the French Constitutional Council), P. Salmona (Director of the Paris Museum of Jewish Art and History) and P. Simon-Nahum (historian, and researcher at the CNRS – French National Scientific Research Centre). It includes contributions from renowned authors in a wide range of fields, particularly historians and philosophers, including Vincent Duclert, Philippe Oriol, Jean-Pierre Winter, Marc de Launay and Philippe Raynaud.
Anti-Semitism crops up whenever a society’s economy or political institutions become fragile. To a certain extent, anti-Semitism is the malady of democratic societies. It tries to undermine their foundations, and to unravel the unity they try to establish between their citizens.

From the torture and killing of Ilan Halimi to the attack on the “Hypercacher” Kosher supermarket in Paris, via the murder of Jewish schoolchildren committed by Mohammed Mérah, anti-Semitic violence was like a harbinger of the terrorist attacks that would lead to bloodshed around France.

How should we respond? That is the task of this book, which brings together historians and philosophers, as well as those who are working in the field. Thus an analysis of the current situation in France is provided through the prism of anti-Semitism. What are the reasons for the rising intolerance and the calling into question of the nation’s democratic principles?