Since its inception, K. magazine has taken an interest, sometimes with concern, in the future and the reconfiguration of the bond that unites Jews and Europe, and Europe and Jews. This week, we present one of our key contributors to this discussion, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, in an interview with its director Jonathan Boyd. Elie Petit speaks to him about what demographic and sociological data reveal about the future of European Jews, and about concerns regarding their precarious situation. But it is also an opportunity for an in-depth discussion on how to understand and measure the rise of antisemitism in Europe, questioning the focus on antisemitic incidents in order to better examine how the political and media atmosphere is becoming oppressive for Jews.
Last July, we published Raphaël Amselem’s investigation into the “Brusselmans affair” in Belgium. Shortly thereafter, HUMO magazine, which had published the incriminating remarks, gave further cause for alarm: it now features a caricature of a Jew dressed as a child-murdering butcher. Joël Kotek analyzes the images through which this medieval antisemitic trope is making a comeback in the Belgian press, which does not seem to be causing much of a stir in Europe. It took the cancellation of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance at the Flanders Festival in Ghent due to the Israeli nationality of its conductor, Lahav Shani, to draw Germany’s attention to what seems to have become the norm in Belgium. And it took the German culture minister to speak of a “shame for Europe” for the Belgian government to condemn what is happening in its country. Lacking the influence of the German government, K. can only point out the circulation of these caricatures in the European imagination, in the hope of alerting people to the resurgence of the fantasies that justify all forms of ostracizing.
For our third text this week, we republish an article by journalist Barbara Necek in which she looks back at the genesis of her film In Search of the Polish Schindler, a fascinating documentary that retraced the story of Eugene Lazowski, a savior of Poles during the Second World War, who was transformed by an enduring legend into a savior of Jews. For K. she went behind the scenes of its shooting and the tale of a historical fake news story that has continued to captivate audiences.
