History

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In Pogrom: Kishinev and the Tilt of History, Steven J. Zipperstein revisits the 1903 massacre in Kichinev, a local event that became a global trauma in the modern Jewish consciousness. More than just an account of violence, his investigation reveals how this pogrom—widely reported, interpreted, and mythologized—shaped contemporary Jewish history: it fueled the rise of Zionism, sparked global mobilization, inspired literature and the press, and forged a lasting paradigm of Jewish vulnerability. Using an approach that combines microhistory and cultural analysis, the American historian dismantles simplistic narratives, questions distortions of memory, and reveals how a provincial tragedy crystallized the major political, social, and symbolic tensions of 20th-century Jewry.

To keep the memory alive of the great historian Pierre Nora, who passed away on Monday, June 2, alive, we are republishing a text by Danny Trom—originally published in La France en récits—which explores the echoes between Nora’s Rethinking France project and Yerushalmi’s Zakhor. Two fundamentally different, even opposing, approaches to memory, yet both addressing the question of Jewish emancipation in the modern nation and what remains of their historical consciousness when the Republic fails to keep its promises.

How did a classic work of Jewish thought written in Arabic in the 12th century, which claims the absolute superiority of Jews and Hebrew, come to be cited by both the Israeli far right and the most radical fringes of anti-Zionism? To dispel this mystery and the misreadings of this text, David Lemler immersed himself in Yehuda Halevi’s Kuzari. His interpretation reveals an unexpected utopia, that of the Jewish state of the Khazars, whose critical function could help us escape contemporary aporias.

On May 8, Europe celebrates its rebirth following the defeat of the Nazis. But can Jews participate in this moment of jubilation that unites European consciousness? Through the experiences of playwright Ionas Turkov on May 8, 1945, Stéphane Bou examines the disconnect between the narratives and emotions of “the world” and those of the Jews. What place can the history of the Shoah find in the grand triumphal narrative of victory and European unity?

From the unpaved streets of Sziget to the affluent suburbs of Manchester, Stephen Pogany traces the remarkable, often harrowing journey of Nóra Platschek, a Jewish woman whose quiet resilience defied war, exile, and loss. Through family records, personal memories, and historical insight, this deeply human narrative challenges antisemitic myths and reclaims the dignity of ordinary lives swept up in extraordinary times.

All massacres resemble each other when one deliberately decides to dispense with the analytical precision that would make it possible to differentiate between them. But where does this love of hackneyed comparisons, so common today, have its roots? Stephan Malinowski sets out to identify the intersecting and paradoxical intellectual lineages that give rise to this great confusion.

As the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is commemorated, and the last survivors are summoned to compensate for the inadequacies of a memory that never seems to be able to take root, Ruben Honigmann reflects in this text on the possibility of recounting the Shoah. In his personal text, this attempt resembles a never-ending search, the meaning of which is never certain.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the discovery of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp by the Red Army, we are publishing a special feature bringing together texts published in K., dealing with the history and memorial challenges surrounding this place which symbolizes, more than any other, the horror of the Shoah. In particular, you’ll find a reflection on antisemitism “because of Auschwitz”, a clandestine manuscript written by Jewish prisoners of the camp who were already worried about the way in which the representation of the Shoah would be distorted, and several contributions confronting precisely these distortions and the difficulties in constituting a memory of the genocide.