Historian Jules Isaac: From the Teaching of Contempt to the Teaching of Esteem

Few people were more influential in changing the relations between the Catholic Church and Jews than the historian Jules Isaac. In his life, Jules Isaac lived through and played a role in some of the most pivotal moments in European history. Born in 1877, he closely followed the Dreyfus affair, which put a spotlight on modern antisemitism in France, and joined the Drefussard camp.

As a historian and a man deeply committed to the French ideal of secularism, he co-authored with Albert Malet a famous history textbook, which shaped the way French children studied and understood history. Before focusing his attention on Catholic teachings about Jews and Judaism, Isaac worked toward Franco-German reconciliation. When, during World War II, he was subjected to anti-Jewish laws by the Vichy regime and removed from his job as a teacher, he turned his attention to the study of the roots of antisemitism. Then, after the war, despite the deportation and murder of his wife Laure and his daughter Juliette in Auschwitz, he found the courage to open a dialogue with the Christian world and work toward reconciliation.

In 1948, Isaac published his influential book Jesus and Israel, in which he discussed the Jewishness of Jesus, and founded the French organization called Judeo-Christian Friendship of France. His meeting with Pope Pius XII and his visit to Pope John XXIII on June 13, 1960, were both decisive in helping change the Church’s view of Judaism, leading to the Nostra Aetate declaration of the Second Vatican Council in 1965.

Isaac, who died in 1963, did not see the fruit of his labor: the promulgation of the Declaration “Nostra Aetate.” Emmanuel Chouraqui’s documentary explores the life of Jules Isaac and how he was able to help transform Catholic anti-Jewish teachings “of contempt” into a teaching of esteem.

We will view an early version of the film by Emmanuel Chouraqui and hear him discuss the film with Matthieu Langlois and Norman C. Tobias, the author of Jewish Conscience of the Church: Jules Isaac and the Second Vatican Council.