Interviews

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.

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.

Founded in 1925 in Vilnius, YIVO—the Jewish Scientific Institute—aimed to be the “home” of Yiddish culture. One hundred years later, based in New York, it remains the global reference for the study and transmission of Ashkenazi culture. To mark this centenary, we met with historian Cecile Kuznitz, who recounts the intellectual and political adventure of this unique institution.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research is a British institute whose mission is to study and support Jewish life in Europe. In this interview, Jonathan Boyd, its director, discusses the major challenges facing European Judaism in the midst of change, and considers how to measure and understand the rise of antisemitism.

Throughout the summer, K. has brought you a weekly feature compiling five articles previously published in the magazine. To conclude this series and mark the start of the new season, we bring you some of the great interviews featured in the magazine this year: with David Nirenberg, Anna Zawadzka, Ruth Beckermann, Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Steven J. Zipperstein.

Historian Deborah Lipstadt was the special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism under the Biden administration. In this interview, she shares her perception of the debates rocking the United States on this issue, between fears that Trump will exploit the fight against antisemitism and the progressive camp’s refusal to clean house.

This summer, K. invites you to rediscover a selection of five articles that have already appeared in the magazine. To kick things off, we have chosen the most read articles since the beginning of 2025: a diverse selection, but one that reflects the concerns of our readers. With texts by Benjamin Wexler, Jonathan Safran Foer, Stéphane Bou and interviews with Eva Illouz and Etgar Keret.

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.

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.