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Invited to answer questions about his relationship to Judaism, Jacques Derrida spoke through Franz Kafka: As for myself, I could imagine another Abraham. He explores the movement between growing up Jewish, becoming Jewish, and Jewish being or existence. In his essay The Other Abraham, which appears here in English for the first time, he imagines other Abrahams in light of the proclaimed universalism of philosophy and its recent fragmentation into philosophemes. Thus we no longer confront Judaism but Judeity, multiple Judaisms and Jewish existences, manifold ways of being and writing as a Jew--in Derrida's case, as a French-speaking Algerian deprived of, then restored to French nationality in the 1940s. Contributions contrast Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem, and trace confluences between deconstruction and Kabbalah. Derrida's relationship to the universalist aspirations in contemporary theology is also discussed, and an evaluation is offered of his late autobiographical writings.

Invited to answer questions about his relationship to Judaism, Jacques Derrida spoke through Franz Kafka: "As for myself, I could imagine another Abraham."From the experience of a summons that surprises us and prompts the query "Who, me?" Derrida explores the movement between growing up Jewish, "becoming Jewish," and "Jewish being" or existence. His essay "The Other Abraham" appears here in English for the first time. We no longer confront "Judaism" but "judeity," multiple Judaisms and Jewishnesses, manifold ways of being and writing as a Jew--in Derrida's case, as a French-speaking Algerian deprived of, then restored to French nationality in the 1940s. What is it to be a Jew and a philosopher? How has the notion of "Jewish identity" been written into and across Jewish literature, Jewish thought, and Jewish languages? Here distinguished scholars address these questions, contrasting Derrida's thought with philosophical predecessors such as Rosenzweig, Levinas, Celan, and Scholem, and tracing confluences between deconstruction and Kabbalah. Derrida's relationship to the universalist aspirations in contemporary theology is also discussed, and his late autobiographical writings are evaluated. This multifaceted volume aims to open the question of Jewishness, above all, to hold it open as a question, though not one of practical or theoretical identity. As much a contestation of identity as a profound reflection on what it means today to seek, elude, and finally to wrestle with the significance of "being-jew," Judeities invites us to revisit the human condition in the twenty-first century

Critically engages with Jacques Derrida's Politics of Friendship and with the limits of friendship as a political conceptReconsiders the importance of this relatively understudied key text in Derrida's oeuvre Includes two contributions on Geschlect IV, 'Heidegger's Ear: Philopolemology', published in the French edition but excluded from the English translationResonates with issues in contemporary politics such as nationalist and anti-nationalist political programmesOffers an interdisciplinary perspective from philosophy, comparative literature and French studies Brings together early career, established and emeritus scholars including Peggy Kamuf, Isabelle Alfandary, Timothy Secret and Pheng Cheah25 years after the publication of Derrida's Politics of Friendship (Politiques de l'amitié, 1994), this edited collection gathers 23 critical chapters that revisit this underappreciated text. Engaging closely with Derrida's text, the contributors analyse, extend and critique the work. They reconsider the place this book occupies in Derrida's political philosophy and its potential for contemporary politics, when the promises and perils of political friendship have reappeared