Quotes by Marc-Alain Ouaknin

Marc-Alain Ouaknin was born on March 5, 1957, in Paris, France. He is the son of Rabbi Jacques Ouaknin and Eliane Erlich Ouaknin. His father, born in Marrakech, Morocco, in 1932, served as the Grand Rabbi in several French cities including Reims, Lille, Metz, and Marseille. His mother was born in Lille in 1932 and passed away in 2007 in Marseille.

Ouaknin studied at the Yechiva in Aix-les-Bains (1970-1974), Gateshead Talmudical College (1974-1975), and the Séminaire Israélite de France (1977-1982), although he did not receive a rabbinical diploma. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1986 under Pierre Kaufmann at the University of Paris-Nanterre.

He is a professor-associate of comparative literature at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His work involves analyzing the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas in dialogue with Jewish texts, particularly Kabbalah and Hasidism, as well as literature, psychoanalysis, and the phenomenology of religion. Since 2007, he has contributed to a new translation of the Hebrew Bible under the "Projet Targoum." He also co-produces the radio show "Talmudiques" on France Culture with Françoise-Anne Ménager.