How many Jews live in Europe today? And how is this population changing? Week after week, K. Jews, Europe, the 21st century publishes 3 free articles that participate in documenting and analyzing Jewish life in Europe today. As you can read in our columns, Jewish life is rich and reactions to anti-Semitism are strong. But the numbers are stubborn. For centuries, Europe has been home to the world’s largest Jewish population center, and the community’s presence on the Old Continent dates back to antiquity. By 1880, European Jews represented 90% of the world’s Jews. After the Holocaust, they accounted for only 35% of the total Jewish population, and by 2020, European Jews accounted for only 9% of the world’s Jewish community.In 2021, demographer Sergio Della Pergola published a wide-ranging demographic study of European Jews. Pergola’s survey, conducted in collaboration with David Staetsky and the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, highlights current trends and places them in historical perspective. K. republishes the interview Jacques Ehrenfreud, professor at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, conducted with Pergola about this landmark survey.
Generation after generation, Jews see anti-Semitism resurface. And they react with waves of rapid politicization and slow depoliticization. This is the movement that journalist Liam Hoare, author of a previous article about the conflict over the Lueger statue in Vienna, tells in this new piece about the Austrian Union of Jewish Students (JÖH). For K.,He met with them to understand their political positions. Tracing the organization’s activism from its beginnings to its latest iterations, Liam Hoare’s article tells how they successfully confront the reality of Austrian history and how their actions challenge the national narrative, recalling the memory of the victims of Nazi crimes and the responsibilities of those who committed them.
Finally, and pursuing its mission to promote Jewish contemporary literature, K. is pleased to publish the short story of a young Danish author, Shosha Raymond, already recognized in her country. Two Pigeons is a plunge into the atmosphere of a Jewish family in Denmark that alternates the voices of a young boy of twelve, his father in burn-out, and his mother about to ask Google how to explain to her son that his father is having a breakdown…
