Abstract

This article reflects on the work of Emmanuel Levinas as a textual site for the critique of the notion of Jewish epistemic difference. The first part discusses critical readings of Levinas, which indicated how his Jewish otherness grounds powerful sameness, of oppressive and imperial nature. The strongest thrust of this critique is characterized as postcolonial. The second part suggests a hermeneutics perspective on Levinas’s work for a reading whereby Levinas himself anticipated contemporary critique and in response to it developed what can be called a decolonial notion of Jewish difference—“decolonial Israel.” The third part offers a reading in Levinas’s work that indicates the horizon for this possible reading.