Edmond Fleg

Edmond Flegenheimer better known as Edmond Fleg, (26 November 1874 – 15 October 1963) was a Jewish French writer, thinker, novelist, essayist and playwright of the 20th century. Fleg's oeuvre was crucial in constructing a modern French Jewish identity, rendering him an instrumental figure in the Jewish awakening during the interwar years. After World War I, Jewish writers began articulating a new, cultural definition of what it meant to be a Jew within the context of French Third Republic universalism. Through his writings — based on Jewish and Christian texts—Fleg formed the foundation of a modern French Jewish spirituality and self-understanding, which allowed secular French Jews to preserve their Jewish identity. In doing so, Fleg was calling for an exploration of the living texts of traditional Judaism as the basis for a modern Jewish identity, establishing a new literary direction devoted to re-interpreting biblical texts and legends, and liturgies. Edmond Fleg was born in Geneva on 26 November 1874 to a Swiss-based Alsatian Jewish family. At the time of his birth, Fleg's parents were residing in Geneva, but their familial roots were in France. Given their connection to France, Fleg's family expressed a strong loyalty to the emancipatory values of the French Revolution when Jews were granted full citizenship. As French-identified Jews, Fleg's parents found the principles of Judaism as they understood them to be identical with the liberal ideals of the French revolution: tolerance, equality, and freedom. Throughout his childhood, Fleg received both a religious and secular education. As a young boy, Fleg quickly began to question god, spirituality, and religion. While reflecting on his Bar Mitzvah, Fleg recalled, "I had no understanding of Hebrew, I didn't understand one word." According to Fleg the entire spectacle felt artificial to him. Years later he would say, "lying in bed, my soul was searching, asking the Eternal to show me when Judaism had become so distasteful.