By Jay Conley
The French Embassy in Georgetown was the setting Monday evening for GW’s Judaic Studies Program’s annual Frieda Kobernick Fleischman Lecture. This year's presentation, supported in part by the French Embassy's Office for Higher Education, featured Professor Pierre Birnbaum of the Sorbonne, who spoke on "Sur la table: Food, Identity and the Jews in Modern France."
The lecture was held in conjunction with Food Fete: The Cultural Politics of Eating in France, a series of events held April 15 and 16, co-sponsored by GW’s Judaic Studies Program and Urban Food Task Force.
During opening remarks for the event, Francois Delattre, France’s ambassador to the United States, praised GW “for tirelessly promoting French language, culture and scholarship.”
Dr. Birnbaum is one of France’s most eminent political sociologists and a widely recognized authority on the history of the Jews in France. An emeritus professor of political sociology and political theory at the Sorbonne, he has also been a visiting professor in Jewish studies at Columbia University. He was most recently a senior fellow at the Tikvah Center for Law and Jewish Civilization at the New York University School of Law.
The author of several publications, many of which have been published in English, Dr. Birnbaum’s recent book, “La République et le Cochon” (translated in English as “The Republic and the Pig”), draws on history, gastronomy and political sociology to explore ways in which the French transformed eating from a private, domestic practice into a public mark of citizenship.
"This year's lecture is going to be given by an extremely distinguished scholar," said GW President Steven Knapp in his opening remarks. "I also want to thank the ambassador not only for hosting us this evening, but also for helping us to support this lecture."
In introducing Dr. Birnbaum, Jenna Weissman Joselit, director of GW’s Judaic Studies Program and the Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Studies, said food is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but it can also be the source of division.
“Food brings us together, but it also sets us apart,” she said. “Citizenship in the modern world, it turns out, pivots on the palate.”
In his presentation, Dr. Birnbaum examined the ways in which, since the French Revolution, the state drew on food--especially on banquets and other formal gatherings --to establish notions of belonging. The central question animating his talk was whether citizens are able to share the same public space even if they don't eat at the same table.
Specifically, Dr. Birnbaum noted that Muslims’ and Jews’ religious beliefs prohibiting the consumption of pork can set them apart from other citizens in France, where pork is a dietary staple for many.
“For the Jews, like Muslims, to eat pork or not to eat pork, that is the question,” he mused.
Dr. Birnbaum noted that this difference in cultures was a central argument throughout France’s history for anti-Semites to exclude Jews from having the same civil rights as other citizens. However, he argues that all societies are composed of several different groups that should be able to coexist together.
“Governments should use these differences to improve societies overall,” he concluded.