At the end of The Second World War and following the creation of a Jewish state, Jews across Europe had to come to terms not only with the devastation of their communities but with the need to redefine their relationship to both their Jewish and national identities. After years of persecutions in which they were forcefully identified as Jews, the tension between internal and external definitions of Jewish existence became more acute and was part and parcel of the renewal of Jewish thought in the second half of the 20th century. As Emmanuel Levinas once remarked, such a renewal of thought is both a pleonasm and a contradiction in terms as it is marked by its tension with tradition as well as by its vivacity. The aim of the course is to introduce the students to the large spectrum of ideas concerning Jewish existence and the variety of figures that took part in this renewal which gave rise to the flourishing of Jewish studies as well as radical new philosophical and moral ideas. By delving into the writings of Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers and critics, mystics and academics, writers and translators, Zionists and socialists, we will inquire after the reasons for this vast array of definitions of Jewish existence within the Jewish world and beyond it. And we will discuss the far-reaching implications on how Jewishness is consequently to be understood, and how and by whom is the Jewish tradition and its cannon to be read according to these various opinions.