Jews of Malta – Conference by Nathalie Cohen
On July 15th, as part of the Respir(e) festival, The Alliance Française and the French Embassy of Malta invited Nathalie Cohen in Rabat St Paul’s Missionary College. She held a conference entitled “Du “Juif de Malte” aux juifs de Malte” and approached many subjects including History, Drama, Religion and Literature.
Nathalie Cohen is a specialist of Judaism in Greek history. She was inspired to begin her research on this topic during a trip to Malta where she noticed a significant Jewish influence. What had been the place of Judaism in the archipelago of Malta? She proceeded to draw up the historical context from a population of mixed religion living in peaceful coexistence, even under Muslim domination; 1530 and the enslavement by catholic power until today. Needless to say, the place of Judaism in Malta changed greatly.
After setting up the historical context, we moved to the subject of Jewish representation in literature. The object of Cohen’s study was the play written by Christopher Marlowe “Le Juif de Malte” and its numerous references and stereotypes, sometimes dealt with humour.
The Alliance Française de Malte-Méditerranée thanks greatly the lecturers, Nathalie Cohen and Pierre Assouline, for sharing their time and knowledge with us.
We then want to thank the French Embassy of Malta which injected life to the first edition of the Respir(e) festival! We also thank Father Clinton Farrugia and Saint St. Paul’s Missionary College for welcoming us, and finally all our partners and patrons for giving your support to this festival!
Lastly, many thanks to everyone who joined us in the Respir(e) festival for your participation. We hope this cultural season was for you as much as it was for us an enjoyable breath of fresh air in the early summer!
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