It is not possible to separate the crisis experienced by the Jews from that experienced by Europe—and the latter has just taken a decisive turn. In this text, delivered on November 19 in Munich, Jürgen Habermas makes an unequivocal observation: the America that embodied a certain idea of the West no longer exists. What is happening there—the purge of the executive branch, the neutralization of the law, the silence of a civil society that reserves its indignation for other causes—is a regime change legitimized by the ballot box. For Europe, caught in an alliance that has lost its normative coherence, it is time to take stock, however bitter it may be, without losing hope.
Benjamin Balint is known to readers for his remarkable book Kafka’s Last Trial (W. W. Norton, 2018), a pioneering account of the legal saga that unfolded in Israel over Franz Kafka's manuscripts. Continuing his exploration of great Jewish artists, their lively presence in our contemporary world, and the question of their collective “legacy,” Benjamin Balint has published an astonishing book on Bruno Schulz, at the crossroads of biography, cultural history, and literary narrative. In Bruno Shultz: An Artist, a Murder, and the Hijacking of History, we discover the fascinating posterity of part of his work: notably the frescoes painted in the children's bedrooms of a Nazi officer, rediscovered, then “saved” by Israeli agents and exhibited at Yad Vashem. But who was Bruno Shultz? An interview with Benjamin Balint.
Retracing the life story of his maternal grandmother, Stephen Pogany offers us a glimpse into the Hungarian Jewish world of the early 20th century. With the First World War, the era changed and hopes were dashed: due to the rise of antisemitism, Jews who had become integrated into the Magyar nation were thrown into the ruts of history.
In Switzerland, two villages that are now almost empty of Jews preserve traces of a long-forgotten history: for centuries, Endingen and Lengnau were the only places where Jews were allowed to live in Switzerland. Synagogues in the center of the village, houses with double doors, mikvahs, a communal cemetery: a world of fragile balances and forced coexistence. Journalist Evelyne Dreyfus and photographer Eric Beracassat returned to these lands where, in the past, it was the synagogue that told the time—and where the memory of an almost erased community still lives on in the stones and in the names.
It had vanished long ago, and no one missed it. That old strain of Catholic anti-Judaism, presumed buried in history, resurfaces in Éric Zemmour’s latest pamphlet, La messe n’est pas dite (The Mass Is Not Over), now reborn in a secular and nationalist form. Gabriel Abensour places Zemmour’s rhetoric back within this atavistic tradition, while probing the deep paradox of its author: what does a “foreign Jew” hope to achieve by aligning himself with the legacy of France’s identitarian Catholic far right?
The comments, that were made by the Minister for Equal Opportunities in the Meloni government questioning school trips to Auschwitz, have reignited an old debate about the memory of the Shoah in the Italian public sphere. Serena Di Nepi, a historian specializing in the Jewish diaspora, explains why she has never taken part in these “ Remembrance Trips,” even though they have become a central civic ritual. Between family history, intimate transmission, and institutional ceremony, she explores the profound disconnect between Jewish memory and national memory, and how Judaism continues to express itself in Italy outside of official commemorative frameworks.
For historian Omer Bartov, the memory of the Shoah has overshadowed the Nakba and contributes to the continuation of the Palestinian catastrophe: in his latest book, he seeks to place them within the same historical and moral context. Eva Illouz offers us her interpretation of this endeavor, which questions Bartov’s political blinders: to what extent is comparison reasonable and does not distort the subjects it seeks to compare?
Following André Markowicz’s article published last week on the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert at the Philharmonie de Paris, we received this first-hand account from a member of the audience. He recounts, from his seat, the music and the emotions of that evening on November 6, 2025: drones flying over the building, interruptions, smoke bombs, the Israeli national anthem as an encore. Through Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, this account questions what a concert can achieve when current events intrude on the very heart of the listening experience.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has not only fractured the Middle East: it has reopened a rift at the heart of Europe. Why has this distant war become the “question” that is tearing the continent apart? What does it reveal about our idea of justice, our memory, and our confidence in emancipation? By tracing the genealogy of the major European “questions” – social, national, feminist – Julia Christ invites us to radically shift our perspective: what if today’s uncertainty is not just about political positions, but about the very meaning of Europe itself?
This text, originally published by André Markowicz on his Facebook page, looks back at the violent interruptions that occurred on Thursday, November 6, during the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert at the Paris Philharmonic. Markowicz questions the political logic behind these actions and shows how, behind the slogan of boycott, criticism of a state can sometimes shift to the designation of a people “as one entity”.
Katharina von Schnurbein is the European Commission’s Coordinator for Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life. K. interviews her here about her mission, the goals pursued by European policies on these issues, and the difficulties they have encountered, particularly in the last two years.
Thirty years after Rabin’s assassination, what remains of the peace camp? Israeli sociologist Ilan Greilsammer recalls the objectives pursued by Rabin’s policies and makes the bitter observation that the right wing has become the majority. Will the latter’s negligence, revealed by October 7 and the conduct of the war in Gaza, allow the cards to be reshuffled?
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