There are whispers here and there that fighting antisemitism plays into the hands of the far right. This alternative, when presented in this way, leaves only two options: fighting for democracy or fighting antisemitism. While there is nothing to be gained from those who allow themselves to be taken in by this fool’s game, the problem is no less serious, particularly when we turn our gaze to the US. The interview we had with the great American historian David Bell—a specialist in the French Enlightenment and professor at Princeton—testifies to the gravity of the situation on campuses. For it is impossible to ignore that, since the beginning of his second term, Trump has been exploiting the fight against antisemitism to impose his security agenda, roll back the rule of law, and justify his anti-intellectual offensive against the academic world. Nor can we ignore that, while antisemitism is merely a pretext for Trump, it has been handed to him on a silver platter by progressives who are incapable of cleaning up their own house. What remains is to refuse to be swept away by this little game in which each side participates, in its own way, in the erosion of democracy and its knowledge-producing institutions…
Still on the other side of the Atlantic, and still the same vice gripping Jews: on the one hand, an extreme right that claims to protect them and defend Israel, while attacking the rule of law and minorities; on the other, a progressive movement that is increasingly porous to antisemitism. This is the situation, as summarized by Sébastien Levi: caught between the Trumpian hammer and the anti-Zionist anvil. But how are American Jews reacting to this new situation? What political realignments can already be glimpsed? Drawing on both his own understanding of American Judaism and his analysis of the Jewish vote in the last presidential election, Sébastien Levi examines how the relationship with Israel is being reevaluated, particularly by the younger Jewish generation, and the new political alliances that could be forged.
To close this last issue before the summer holidays, we are…
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The spectacle of extreme polarization that is inflaming American society, particularly with regard to its university system, could make us forget the importance of the old tradition of liberal pragmatism. The interview we had with historian David Bell, professor at Princeton, reminds us of this, by refusing to exaggerate or euphemize the deeply divisive issue of antisemitism on campus. As Trump and the most radical fringes of campus progressivism battle for the right to sabotage the American university, David Bell points to the place where the fight against antisemitism and the defense of the university are intertwined.
How are American Jews experiencing the current political situation, in which their attachment to Israel, the democratic norms of their own country, and the security they believed they enjoyed in the face of antisemitism are all being called into question? For Sébastien Lévi, they are caught between Trump's hammer and the anti-Zionist anvil - a divide foreshadowing the political reconfigurations and struggles to come.
"Longing" was first published in Yiddish in the New York online magazine 'Yiddish branzhe'. It is the epilogue of a novel in Yiddish that Ber Kotlerman, professor of Yiddish language and literature at Bar-Ilan University, will soon publish with the Swedish publisher Olniansky Tekst. Ber Kotlerman, who was born in Irkutsk in 1971, has the distinction of having grown up in Birobidzhan. The "autonomous Jewish region" founded in 1934 as part of the USSR is the backdrop to his book.
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Following the disturbing election results in eastern Germany, which saw the triumph of authoritarian, xenophobic, and antisemitic parties, Antonia Sternberger examines the roots of far-right ideas in the former GDR and their influence on Jewish life. Her investigation highlights a particular inability to learn from historical experience—whether Nazi crimes or Soviet dictatorship—which forces Jews in eastern Germany to navigate, with a remarkable amount of courage, an environment that oscillates between ignorance and outright hostility.
After examining the political, media, and judicial indifference surrounding Herman Brusselmans’ call for the murder of Jews published in Humo, this second part of Rafaël Amselem’s investigation focuses on the ambiguous role of Unia, the Belgian institution responsible for combating discrimination. Between legalistic interpretation, refusal to act, and confusion in the face of anti-Zionism, the case reveals the profound limitations of the Belgian legal and political framework in dealing with contemporary antisemitism.
In this interview with Danny Trom, Yehudah Mirsky looks back at the intellectual and spiritual roots of religious Zionism, from its internal tensions to its contemporary manifestations. Underlying this is the figure of Rav Kook, a mystic and visionary who is now claimed by the most opposing factions of the Israeli religious Zionist scene. One question arises out of this exploration: how did a movement born of an ideal of reconciliation between tradition and modernity partly derive into becoming the vehicle for an aggressive nationalist messianism.
Danny Trom’s article “Holy Week on Xanax” sparked numerous reactions. Among the letters, some more constructive than others, one stood out: the response from anthropologist and historian Leopoldo Iribarren, which the editorial staff of K. unanimously decided to publish. Danny Trom, having come to his senses but far from repenting, responds to his colleague’s friendly challenge.
Have you heard of Herman Brusselmans? He is the author of the following lines, which appeared in August 2024 in a popular Belgian magazine: “I see an image of a little Palestinian boy crying and screaming, calling for his mother who is buried under the rubble. I become so furious that I want to stab every Jew I meet in the throat with a sharp knife.” Less than a year later, the case brought forward by a Jewish organization ended in acquittal. In a two-part investigation, Rafaël Amselem explains why—and how. A journey to Belgium, where these words are (almost) no longer shocking.
Keith Kahn-Harris, author of Everyday Jews: Why the Jewish people are not who you think they are, questions, with a hint of provocation, this strange and alienating Jewish tendency to want to make themselves indispensable to the world. What if the best response to antisemitism was ultimately to claim the right to frivolity, to allow oneself a perfectly superfluous existence?
From the Iran-Iraq War to the bloody suppression of uprisings, to the current war, which has buried the Mullahs’ nuclear hopes, the memory of violence runs through an entire generation of Iranians. Iranian poet Atefe Asadi, now a refugee in Germany, shared her story with us. She questions the ethics of states faced with a criminal regime that has gone unpunished for decades. Between traumatic memories, lucid anger, and unyielding hope, she paints a portrait of an abandoned people. She looks back on the bloody repression, the lost illusions, and the ongoing war—and yet continues to dream of a free Iran.
While certain historical truths are too often silenced, stating them does not necessarily mean taking on the role of demystifier. The great merit of this interview with Benny Morris, first published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on June 20, 2025 [on the eve of the US attack], is that it illustrates how accurate and lucid historical work can lead to salutary political clarifications. As the war with Iran raged, the Israeli historian, a leading figure among the “new historians” of the 1980s and author of The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949 – a pioneering work on the causes of the Palestinian exodus – revisited the roots of the Middle East conflict and the myths surrounding it.
The conflict between Israel and the mullahs’ Iran — which, at the time of writing, appears to be coming to an end — has highlighted the significance of war itself for Israel. By depriving the Islamic Republic of Iran of the means to achieve its exterminatory goals, Israel is redefining the concrete conditions for its security. This raises with even greater urgency the question of whether to continue the endless and deadly war in Gaza. But the confrontation that has just ended also calls into question Europe’s inaction in the face of the criminal threats made for decades against the State of Israel and the Jews, which is merely the other side of its indifference to the fate of the Iranian people.
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