Emmanuel Lévinas' attempt "Difficult Freedom" is a collection of essays on Jewish life and thought in the 20th century. Lévinas' essays emerged over the past decades from a variety of occasions: discussions about the Jewish religion, the State of Israel, Jewish education, Christian-Jewish dialogue, and current events such as the launch of the Sputnik rocket in 1957. In 1954, Lévinas observed the trial against those responsible for the Struthof concentration camp. Despite the diverse occasions, the texts gathered here by Emmanuel Lévinas have two focal points: reflection on the origins of Judaism and reflections on National Socialism. From these two focal points, the return to the sources of Judaism and the experience of the Shoah, Lévinas develops the fundamentals of an ethics.