Edmond Jabès (Heb. Yaʿabeṣ) holds an eminent place in twentieth-century French literature. He is best known for introducing a new literary form and for shaping discussion of the Jewish condition at a time when writers and thinkers were struggling to come to terms with Auschwitz. Born in Cairo in 1912, Jabès left Egypt for France in June 1957, during the Second Exodus. He was naturalized a French citizen in 1968 and died in Paris in 1991. He is buried at Père Lachaise. The presence of his paternal family in Egypt is traceable to the early nineteenth centu…