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It was not possible for Jews to declare themselves as such at the end of World War Two just as they might have done before the war. Starting from 1957, symposiums of French-speaking Jewish intellectuals met in order to think through the meaning of Judaism in contemporary France in a context of a sense of bruised citizenship. Initiated by Edmond Fleg and Léon Algazi, these symposiums gathered many Jewish intellectuals who chose to start again from tradition and question their condition as modern individuals. At first closely related to the Orsay School, many members of which figured in these meetings, the symposiums went through three major historical periods. Between 1957 and 1968, they conducted research in Jewish awareness that fell within the philosophical currents of that period, with the link with history and messianism being at the heart of their questioning. Since most of the founders left for Israel, the Six-Day War and then the Yom Kippur War a few years later revealed a more political trend, the more so as their encounter with the social sciences dealt with questions about society. During 1980 and the following years, under the influence of the philosopher Émmanuel Lévinas and the importance attached to the question of the position of Judaism within the French political and intellectual landscape, the Symposiums thought through the contemporary Jewish condition in terms of belonging and ethics.