Abstract
Enrico Macias, an Algerian-born singer who has lived in France since 1961, declares “Je suis le juif espagnol” (I am the Spanish Jew) in a song. Macias considers himself Sephardic and is probably a descendant of the Jews who left Spain in 1492. The oppression, discrimination, and exile he sings about are therefore historical facts, rather than a sympathetic leap of the imagination. The trauma of exile has aroused thoughts of Sepharad among a number of French-speaking Jewish writers. This chapter examines a phenomenon reminiscent of nationalism because it combines ethnicity and history in the creation of a new Sephardic identity in a modern French context. It looks at three generations of Francophone authors from Algeria, Tunisia, Greece, and Morocco who allude to their relationship with Spain and their Sephardic heritage using the French language and the French cultural universe. It also shows how Francophone Jews have embraced an idea of pan-sephardism and how Sephardim whose ancestors originally came from Spain had become scattered among different diasporic communities.
Published Version
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