Le goût de l’histoire et de l’hébreu : une aventure à deux

Abstract

Born into a Catholic family, Danielle Delmaire is a specialist in the history of Jewish communities in France and Jewish Catholic relations. Her interest in these fields of research was aroused during a vacation in Israel in 1966, after which she decided to live for two years in a kibbutz and to learn Hebrew while continuing her studies in history at the University of Lille. Upon her return to France in 1968, she enrolled in a Hebrew studies program at the same university, where she met Jean-Marie Delmaire, who played a major role in her life both professionally and personally. In this article, she looks back on their careers and their contribution to the development of the history of the Jews and Hebrew in France. Notably, for example, the historian recalls her husband’s efforts to develop Hebrew studies at the University of Lille. He created the Institute of the History of Religions (IHR), where the history of Jewish communities and Judaism is taught, in the early 1990s and founded the scholarly journal Tsafon, Revue d’études juives du Nord in 1990.