Jean Daniel, (1920-) is an Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

n-born French-Jewish journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and author. He is the founder and executive editor of Le Nouvel Observateur

Le Nouvel Observateur

Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....

weekly.

Daniel is a Jewish humanist

Humanism

Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

 in the venerable tradition of the French Left. He argues in La prison juive: Humeurs et méditations d'un témoin (The Jewish Prison) that by considering themselves God's Chosen People

Jews as a chosen people

In Judaism, "chosenness" is the belief that the Jews are the Chosen People, chosen to be in a covenant with God. This idea is first found in the Torah and is elaborated on in later books of the Hebrew Bible...

 the Jews

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 have imprisoned themselves. He rigorously questions the role of religion in modern morality.

Jean Daniel was a member of the Saint-Simon Foundation

Saint-Simon Foundation

The Saint-Simon Foundation was a French think tank created in 1982 by the historian François Furet. It gathered intellectuals and businessmen until its dissolving in 1999. It was a member of the The Hague Club international network of think-tanks...

 think-tank.

Books

• The Jewish Prison: a Rebellious Meditation on the State of Judaism translated into English by Charlotte Mandell, 2005, Melville House Publishing, USA

Articles

• "We Already Miss His Vigilance" TELOS
  TELOS (journal)
  Telos is an academic journal published in the United States. It was founded in May 1968 to provide the New Left with a coherent theoretical perspective. It sought to expand the Husserlian diagnosis of "the crisis of European sciences" to prefigure a particular program of social reconstruction...
  
  44 (Summer 1980). New York: Telos Press