Interviews

The documentary work of Ruth Beckermann (b. 1952) has played an important role in shaping Austria’s relationship with its past. In this interview with the Viennese filmmaker and writer, Liam Hoare and Beckermann discuss some of the documentaries in her rich filmography, and how they blend political activism and Judaism, in the context of a gradual rise of the far right and a taboo on the fate of Jews during the war.

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.

For the first issue of 2025, we invite you to read or re-read the 7 most popular articles of the past year.   The Eternal Settler Benjamin Wexler – Published…

Following his op-ed piece with Raphaël Glucksmann in the columns of Le Monde, the K. editorial team wanted to give Daniel Cohn-Bendit the opportunity to expand on his resolutely critical stance towards the Israeli government and his support for recognition of a Palestinian state. In this interview, Julia Christ and Danny Trom ask him about his Judaism, his relationship with Zionism, how he perceives the pro-Palestinian movements and BDS, as well as Europe and populism…

How do Israeli academics react to the call for a boycott of their universities, and to the idea that they support the policies of the Hebrew state? What is their relationship with the Netanyahu government, and how has the war affected their academic freedom? To shed light on these questions, K. went to interview them directly. We publish the answers of Professors Itaï Ater and Alon Korngreen, members of the “Academics for Israeli Democracy” group, as well as those of Professor Eyal Benvenisti, member of the “Forum of Israeli Law Professors for Democracy”.

Is contemporary anti-Zionism a new version of “idiot socialism”? How can it be criticized from a left-wing perspective, without giving in to the sirens of reaction? In this interview, Mitchell Cohen, former editor-in-chief of Dissent magazine , gives us a few ways out of contemporary aporias. In the wake of the Trump victory, we also asked him to answer a few questions that might enlighten European readers about the American political situation.

What are the implications of the arrest warrants issued by the ICC against Netanyahu and Gallant? Should they be seen as a political judgment? To clarify the legal implications of this decision, K. went to interview legal expert Yann Jurovics – whom we had already interviewed about South Africa’s case before the International Court of Justice, as well as about the request to issue arrest warrants before the ICC last May.

How did American Jews and their organizations position themselves during the presidential campaign, and what role did the Israel-Palestine conflict play in it? In this interview, conducted on the eve of Presidential Election Day, journalist and essayist Dara Horn sheds light on the political cleavages within the American Jewish world, and how they are at times instrumentalized.

In the West we tend to see the fall of communism as ushering in greater freedom for religious and other minorities. It’s true that after decades of post-war silence, Poland’s Jewish heritage industry, which includes a gleaming museum in the center of Warsaw, an annual Jewish culture festival in Krakow, and thousands of local efforts to excavate history, is flowering. But does this mean that Poland is overcoming its Jewish problem? Arlene Stein spoke to Anna Zawadzka, Polish sociologist, who examines the changing forms of antisemitism in Polish culture in a new book More than a Stereotype , cautioning us against such facile conclusions.