European Jews in the 21st Century

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "European Jews in the 21st Century"

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: New Books
Date: June 18, 2026

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Overview

This special episode, recorded in partnership with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, explores the evolving realities of Jewish life in Europe in the 21st century. The panel features editors from the new pan-European Jewish journal K, based in Paris: Editor-in-Chief Stéphane Bou, columnist and educator Masha Fogel, and moderator Daniel Solomon (senior editor of K). Their discussion spans Jewish demographics, identity, security, integration, cultural expression, and the challenge of fostering a unified European Jewish voice amid shrinking communities and rising challenges.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why a Pan-European Jewish Review? (05:36–09:48)

• Need for a European Perspective:
  • Stéphane Bu: “All the magazines who exist are closed into the national bond of each country. So we wanted to enlarge the focus. We wanted to try to connect different communities of different countries all together." (09:48)
• Context of Shrinking Communities:
  • Jewish populations in Europe now represent only 9% of the world’s Jews (down from 90% a century ago).
  • The continual emigration—"a movement of leaving Europe"—has been especially significant in the last 15–20 years.
• Purpose of the Magazine K:
  • To act as a “meeting space, a common area” for dialogue across both geography and ideology.
  • Focus on both academic analysis and tangible reportage to understand “where we are and where we’re going” as Jews in Europe.

2. Jewish Identity & Memory in France (16:28–23:32)

• Generational Silence & Secrecy:
  • Stéphane Bu: Shares a personal story of being raised in a family marked by wartime trauma and a “painful atmosphere” of “silence and secrets” regarding Jewish identity (16:28–20:46).
  • Personal revelation: “I remember very clearly my mother telling me when I was 12 or 13 years old, now you know you are Jewish, don’t tell anyone.” (16:28)
• Shift in Public Jewish Experience:
  • After the early 2000s, French Jews have felt “isolated, alone, a little bit disconnected from the national entity,” particularly highlighted after violent incidents such as the Ilan Halimi murder.
  • Daniel Solomon: Provides historical context—escalation of antisemitic violence in France linked to wider tensions and the legacy of colonialism and the Middle East.

3. French Jewish Composition & Security Concerns (24:17–33:46)

• Diversity within French Jewry:
  • Masha Fogel: Notes the largest component of the contemporary Jewish community comes from North Africa—“Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria”—often living today alongside newer Muslim immigrants from the same regions (24:17).
• Community Integration & Tension:
  • Tensions and “mixed feelings” exist due to shared history with Muslim neighbors—oscillating between nostalgia, cultural connection, and conflict, especially amid broader societal insecurities.
• School Security:
  • Significant government and communal security measures at Jewish schools: police presence, security cards, but usually no metal detectors (29:11).
  • After the 2012 Toulouse attack: Security has been heightened across all Jewish institutions (30:25).
• Emigration Trends:
  • Emigration (“Aliyah”) to Israel and the US accelerated since 2000 due to security fears, especially in vulnerable neighborhoods.

4. Sense of French Jewish Future (33:46–35:47)

• Challenges Around Staying or Leaving:
  • Many young Jews, particularly in traditional communities, increasingly “see their future in the US,” influenced by both practical reasons and cultural fascination (e.g., American media). Still, “they enjoy their lifestyle here because it’s a very sweet life.” (33:46–35:47)
• Maintaining French Jewish Identity:
  • Schools and teachers make efforts to teach the deep history of Jews in France, highlighting figures like Rashi to foster a sense of heritage and belonging.

5. State of Yiddish and Yiddishkeit in France (35:47–38:12)

• Cultural and Religious Branches:
  • The Yiddish-speaking world in Europe is divided between Hasidic communities (found in GB, Belgium, Switzerland) and a “Yiddishist” cultural community.
  • Paris houses a vibrant Yiddish cultural center, attracting scholars and translators. Other hubs include Vilnius (Lithuania).

6. The “Interior Aliyah” — Intra-France Migration (38:15–39:25)

• Sociological Phenomenon:
  • Internal migration from suburbs to safer or more central neighborhoods among French Jews, seeking “to find back a normal life.”
• Notable Quote:
  • “For people like us who are living in the center of Paris, it’s not the same situation that... the whole Jewish world who live in a suburb.” (38:15)

7. Scope and Content of K Magazine (42:16–46:28)

• Editorial Mix:
  • K publishes a blend of journalism, academic essays, philosophical pieces, and reportage.
  • Recent topics:
    • The “Zemour phenomenon” (analysis of a far-right Jewish politician)
    • Disputes on Holocaust memory (e.g., Babi Yar in Ukraine)
    • Holocaust debates among German historians
    • Jewish publishing in Italy
    • Hungarian government interaction with the Jewish community
• Multilingual Ambitions:
  • Most content is in French and English, but K also translates/accepts work from German, Italian, Hungarian, and even some Yiddish contributors (48:15).

8. Intermarriage & French Jewish Communal Structure (49:49–55:50)

• Intermarriage Debates:
  • Traditional rabbis “very concerned”; more liberal communities more welcoming, but still a small minority in France.
• Organizational Centralism:
  • The central Consistory (“consistoire”) is the Orthodox religious authority in France, with limited presence of liberal and independent synagogues.
  • Affiliation with the consistory is also practically linked with recognition by Israel and eligibility for emigration.

9. European Jewry’s Place Between America and Israel (56:39–60:14)

• “Small Between Two Massive Groups”:
  • European Jews sometimes feel “small… and maybe weak between two massive groups, American Judaism and Israel.” (56:41–57:21)
• Dialogue and Identity:
  • K positions itself as a pluralist European Jewish voice, aiming to forge stronger bonds and dialogue with American and Israeli Jewry.
  • American Jewry’s historical and ongoing role: “American Jewry largely constructed postwar European Jewry… all the French institutions of Jewish life were set up by the Joint Distribution Committee, the American Jewish Committee, after the war.” (57:44–60:14)
  • The example of American Jewish integration is seen as an instructive model for European Jews.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the need for a pan-European magazine:
  • Stéphane Bu: “There is a crisis, basically. There is no more Jewish media about Jewish world in Europe. And all the magazines who exist are closed into the national bond of each country. So we wanted to enlarge the focus… to connect different communities of different countries all together.” (09:48)
• On post-Holocaust Jewish silence:
  • Stéphane Bu: “Now you know you are Jewish, don’t tell anyone.” (16:28)
• On contemporary safety perceptions:
  • Masha Fogel: “In France, we are used to have a maximum security for all Jewish places… you also have members from the Jewish security task who will stand in front of the school during the whole day.” (29:11)
• On the “Aliyah interieur”:
  • Stéphane Bu: “A lot of parts of the Jewish world in all kind of different area in the suburb basically came in other part just because they want to find back a normal life.” (38:15)
• On the role of the review K:
  • Stéphane Bu: “To build a European voice, pluralist, but one European voice who could also speak with these two massive, massive world between which we feel small.” (57:21)
• On preservation and change:
  • Daniel Solomon: “We are a community which is a remnant to a certain extent. And our goal is to marshal all of our collective energy in order to understand where we are and where we’re going.” (14:03)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [05:36] – Why a pan-European Jewish review?
• [16:28] – Personal stories of Jewish identity and secrecy in France
• [24:17] – Composition of French Jewry and social tensions
• [29:11] – Security at Jewish schools, post-attacks
• [31:23] – Emigration trends and French Jewish attachment
• [35:47] – The place of Yiddish language and culture in France/Europe
• [38:15] – “Aliyah interne”: Internal migration for safety
• [42:16] – Editorial mission and scope of K magazine
• [49:49] – Intermarriage issues and communal structure
• [56:39] – Europe’s Jewish voice between America and Israel

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Conclusion & Final Thoughts

The episode presents a nuanced, on-the-ground portrait of Jewish life in contemporary Europe, emphasizing both resilience and malaise amid demographic decline and shifting social realities. The creation of K magazine is a significant attempt to unify disparate Jewish voices across the continent, to foster dialogue, and to ensure that the European Jewish story continues to be told both internally and to the wider Jewish world. The discussion underscores that while threats and challenges remain, Jewish life—especially in cultural, intellectual, and communal domains—retains vitality and a sense of future, even as questions of security, emigration, and integration persist.

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For further reading and contributions:

• K Magazine – English Edition
• [Contact Info & Social Media provided at episode’s end.]

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Transcript

[A]

Welcome to the New Books Network.

[B]

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Yivo, if you're not yet familiar or if you'd like a reminder, is a special place for the contemplation and celebration of Jewish history and culture. YIVO's Archives and Library, as you may know, represent the single largest and most comprehensive collection of materials on Eastern European Jewish civilization in the world. So we are so glad to have you join us for today's event. European Jews in the 21st century. We're going a little bit beyond Eastern Europe to think about all of Europe throughout the event. We invite you to type your questions into the Q and A here on Zoom. We'll try and answer some of them towards the end of the event. And I'll also note that like Most all of YIVO's events, this event is being recorded. And so you will be able to watch it afterwards on YouTube and, and I highly encourage you, if you don't already, to check out YIVO's YouTube channel and watch the many, many videos we have of previous programs there as well. So we'll start up. I'm going to introduce our moderator, Daniel Solomon. Daniel is the senior editor of K, the magazine that we're speaking about today. He runs the magazine's English language edition. He is a doctoral student in history at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard and is a former reporter at the Forward His Studies center on French and European Jews. So I will turn it over now to Daniel to introduce the other panelists and to lead them in a conversation.

[A]

Hello. We're so pleased to be in conversation with all of you today and see the broad range of locations from which all of us hail. I myself am in California right now, and today we will be leading a conversation about the situation of Europe's Jews today and tomorrow in historical and social context, with three panelists, all of them French, but each with very much a pan European perspective. And we all edit and participate in the running of the new European Jewish review, K, which is based in Paris at the Ecole des Hautes Social, which is a French institution of higher education dedicated to the social sciences. So I will introduce our panelists, one of whom is running a bit late, so we will scramble our programming somewhat. But no matter. The first person that we'll be talking today to is Stephane Bu. Stephan is the editor in chief of CA of K. He used to be a reporter at Charlie Hebdo and Lieutenant in Chenier. He is a veteran of the French media Having worked at a whole range of outfits and also very much having his feet in academia. He teaches a journalism seminar at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, and he has written books with such people as Saul Friedlander. So he's very much equipped to speak to us on this matter. The second person that we will be speaking to is Masha Fogel. She is Kay's columnist for, let's say, the World of Yiddish Land, and she helps us edit our essays. Masha is a teacher at a Jewish school in the Paris area, a Jewish day school, and she is a very avid translator and writer and reader of Yiddish. And our third guest, hopefully that he can join us, is Danny Trom. He is the assistant, sorry, the executive editor of K, a senior researcher at the USUSS in Paris, the school, and someone who is widely seen as an eminent authority in France on Jewish matters. His latest book is called France without the Jews, Les France sans les Juifs. So that is of course, what helps you to avoid. But nonetheless, we have to deal with that question. So I'm going to start with Stepan and I'm just going to ask him to give us an idea of why. Why we need a European Jewish review. Why today? What is the situation of Europe's Jews today? And Stefan, can you give us some of your personal experience as someone who's long worked in the French media, both professionally and personally, what it means to be Jewish in that space and why you felt the need to start this review?

[C]

Hello to everybody and thank you to be with us tonight. Of course, I'm sorry, because my English is not absolutely perfect, not even good enough. But I'll try to answer all of your question, but it's a large question with several direction we can begin, I would say, about the beginning of the review. Daniel, I would say it's an idea we had maybe two, three years ago. And it becomes more and more obvious for us to do it as a European review and not a French review, because the starting point was a very sad hypothesis we were in front of when you are in a European country. And about that in the first issue we made, which came out, it was so eight months ago, it was with the demographic of Sergio de la Pagoa. But demographic question, first of all, maybe we can start by that one century ago, 90% of the Jewish of the world were living in Europe and today it's 9%. And I have to add that after The Holocaust, the 3/4 of the Jewish were at one moment present on the European soil, left the country and this movement of leaving Europe was probably became more efficient, more pregnant since maybe 15, 20 years. So we were confronted to this hypothesis, this dystopian hypothesis, that maybe in Europe, people like us were the contemporary Jews of a disconnection between the European fact on the Jewish act. So we wanted to all around Europe about this kind of concern and beside on a more academic side, to propose reflection, analysis, text and in different academic field

[A]

for a moment. I just want to make it clear to our. To our listeners, to our attendees. We opened our review in March with an issue, as Stephane was saying, about demography. And something that we had very much on our mind is the idea that Europe's Jewish population now is at its lowest percentage as representative of the overall population than it has been since 1000 AD. Now this trend escape was saying, continued to accelerate even after the Holocaust, where you still had about 2 million Jews living in Europe to maybe 3 million, I believe after the Holocaust. Now we're at about 1.3, 1.4 million. So a lot of the impetus for our. Our reflections was whether the Jewish presence in Europe would endure. We were, you know, we're considering whether the Jewish presence in Europe would endure and if so, under what conditions. So, Stefan, continue though. Tell us about why. Tell us maybe about why you felt that in Europe and in France, we needed a publication like K.

[C]

We needed a publication like. You mean as a European review, As a European magazine or journal, because all the. Because there is a crisis, basically. There is no more Jewish media about Jewish world in Europe. And all the magazines who exist are closed into the national bond of each country. So we wanted to enlarge the focus. We wanted to try to connect different communities of different countries all together and to speak about issues in each country and to see if what we feel in France, which is the biggest community in Europe, is the same in Great Britain, in Germany, in Italy, in the Balkan, at the east of Europe, et cetera. And of course, it's very different from in each country. But the idea was to see the 1.5 million Jews which were still in Europe and I think about living in France mostly. So is there still something like. I don't know if Masha is. At the very beginning. Masha, we can't hear you.

[B]

Yes.

[D]

Can you hear me? Yes, yes, yes. So I just. I see that there are two questions in the Q and R and I'd like to address them. We speak. When we speak about Europe, of course, we do include Great Britain, although I know they're now more part of the European Union. They are part of Europe and, and of the history of Europe. And we. And also I would like. And there was another question about, yeah, where are people moving to? Mostly the US And Israel. And I just would like to add that of course, the fall of the USSR was also very important in the history of European Jewry since so many Jews, as you guys know, in the US Moved to the US and to Israel. But apart from these answers to the questions that were asked, I didn't hear. Maybe there was a technical problem. I didn't hear if you asked me a question, Stefan or Daniel.

[C]

No, I was just saying that if you. I would just say after I try to expand my point of view. If you share. That was.

[D]

So this is. Yeah, this is what I wanted to add.

[C]

Okay. But you are right, we include Great Britain, even if it's complicated with Great Britain, because the Great Britain, the English Jews, they think themselves into a world with American maybe before to think their place in the Europe context. But we work a lot with them and we include Russia. Russia, yeah.

[D]

And since we do include Russia and.

[C]

And so it's not Europe as a political, institutional, political entity we consider, but as a continent with very blur bound, very blur limits.

[D]

And I would also.

[A]

Sorry, Masha, if I can just clarify, you know, and just build on what you guys are saying. You know, we made an intentional choice, a KA using the French. Sorry, instinctively the French name KA rather

[C]

than kanto, maybe I should say.

[A]

We made a choice. We made a choice. We made a choice at K to cover the entire continent because we recognized that we have to, due to the demographic shrinkage of European Jewry, communities like those in Italy only have about 20,000 people left. Germany maybe has 100,000 maximum, I think, or something of that sort. France, we have the largest still at 500,000. So there is still to some extent a low community Jewish press in France. But even in France, that community press is often of low quality or quite partisan in its outlook. And so our goal in founding K was to basically be a meeting space, a common area in which we could all essentially from across the continent, across political viewpoints, however large or small, our Jewish community participate in a continental conversation. And that's been. I think we recognize that we are a community which is a remnant to a certain extent. And our goal is to marshal all of our collective energy in order to understand where we are and where we're going. I want to ask Stefan. Stefan is a veteran, as I said, of the French media. He was a longtime reporter at Charlie. Hebdo which we all know of, for better and worse, what it was like for him to understand that we needed this publication in France. Why? In the sense that. Stefan, can you talk about your own sense of Jewish identity and how it's evolved in France over the past 20 or 30 years? You obviously grew up very secular and now you've had this kind of move toward the Jewish space. Why? And what does that tell us about French and European Jews?

[C]

You are frozen. I don't know if you hear me, do you? Okay, okay, sorry. Because everything works for them. I come from a family where secular. I mean, I come from a family, I think it's common in France. It's for French Jews of my generation. Not all of them, of course. I am a very representative of a small group. But it's more than secular because what was prevailing in my family was silence and secrets. So my mother was hidden during the war. And I never learned anything about Jewish question and just the Jewish geography of my family before I was a teenager. And it was by chance, exterior circumstances. And I remember very clearly my mother telling me when I was 12 or. Or 13 years old, now you know you are Jewish, don't tell anyone. So that's. That's my experience. And I think it's very. I wouldn't say it's very common, but of people of my generation who lives were in that kind of situation, of course, Masha is not at all in the. In the same situation. So for me it was the Jewish question for me was first of all a teenager rebel. Rebel against familial environment, where silence and secret was a painful atmosphere. And then it became more and more question for me. In my professional life, I wrote books, I write, I. About this question. And I would say that a turning point for me, an instant of revelation or. I don't know, was met a march in after the assassination of Ilana Limi at the beginning of the year 2000, where I realized, I mean, as a journalist, where I was there as a journalist that Jewish people were marching against after this assassination so made 20 years ago, the Jewish were alone, basically. And if you remember the great march after the attack of the Copernic Synagogue or after some profanation of Jewish cemetery in the east of France, all the French were there. So during the last 20 years, a sort of experience of Jewish French was that they were isolated, alone, a little bit disconnected from the national entity in. In a country where the construction of the national entity. And you know that better than me, Daniel, because you work on it as an historian, was, Was. Was. Was thought through the Jewish question during the French Revolution.

[A]

So this sick Stefan pianist, just to add some clarity. Yeah, Stefan didn't say this, but interestingly enough, he's also one of those. One of those French Jews whose mother was saved by being hidden in a Catholic convent, I believe. Right, Stefan? By your mother. She was hidden by the nuns or the priests. Right.

[C]

In a Catholic boarding school.

[A]

Exactly. And you yourself, you went to a Catholic school. Yes, of course.

[C]

I mean, of course this was part of the discretion, part of craziness, in a way. It was a.

[A]

This was part of the discretion of French. Of certain French Jews in the aftermath of the Holocaust, which was to minimize and downplay their identity as much as possible. And so you were part of that.

[C]

But I have to add. Excuse me, Daniel. I have to add that Mama, my mother was always very, very ambivalent. And she used to live in New York in the late 70s, in the late 60s, during two years. And she realized she could live in a city in a world where it was possible to say that she was basically Jewish. So she became, with strong revocation against his own father. Father always a survivor. And it was a very huge familial issue between her and her father. So she, but she still, she remained, even today, very undeveloped.

[A]

I want to just place that in historical context. Very briefly. Our other guest, Dan Tromp, is sadly not able to join us due to technical difficulties. And he was supposed to answer some of these questions. So in lieu of him, I will answer some of them. Ilan Hilimi. There was essentially, France's Jewish community began to experience a wave of violence at the turn of the century due to disturbances in the Middle east, the second Intifada and France's own post colonial heritage, combined with the Israel Palestine conflict and other social concerns about integration to produce a wave of hatred and violence against Jews in certain particularly urban neighborhoods where Jews and Muslims had lived together. The climax of this was the murder of Ilan Halini, I forget which year, a very grisly murder in which he was targeted for being Jewish, essentially lynched. And this stirred great emotion in the French Jewish community. And we've had off and on since then, high profile murders of Jewish French people, often by, frankly, Muslim attackers,

[D]

including

[A]

Sarah Halimi, recently Mireille Nol. Much of this violence again occurs in neighborhoods where Jews and Muslims have shattered, shared those neighborhoods, and where Jews have sort of become representatives of a French society which is despised by certain people, disaffected from it. And so I would Say that French Jewish society feels embattled to a certain degree. But I actually want to go to that. I want to ask Masha to discuss that. How do French Jews feel today? What's the climate they exist in? Because you teach in that noyeux.

[D]

Yes. One thing that we have to say about French Jewry is that actually the biggest part of the Jewish community nowadays in France are Jews coming from North Africa, so Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. So they actually come exactly from the same countries as the Muslim immigration that you were talking about. That part, which a part of can face some integration problems. So actually Jews do represent the French in a way because they are. The Jews come from the same countries, but they managed to make a living and to become integrated into the French society. And some people might say that they did better. And there are some jealous feelings which of course, as always in anti Semitism is not always is not actually based on reality, but on what people feel. I would say another thing I would like to say is that about Europe in general. I talked about the importance of the fall of the. Of the former Soviet Union. And actually countries from the FSU see have seen Jews living since 1992. And not only Russian speaking countries, but also other ones. And because what that question was asked in the Q and R, I will answer. They are leaving to the US to Israel and to Russia actually because many Jews from small countries, from the FSU move to Moscow or big Russian cities. So this is, this is what I wanted to answer.

[A]

Can I just ask you to address. You know, you. Can you tell us about the school you teach in?

[D]

Of course.

[A]

What's the climate there? How do people feel about.

[D]

Well, I. I teach to nice teenagers in A. And they personally don't always speak so much about it. But there is in general, I have to say in the Jewish community, which is more traditional. So not in the liberal communities, not so much in the cultural circles that Stefan might come from, for example, but in the more traditional and broad Jewish community there is a feeling of fear and also sometimes of hate against the Muslims in general. This is something that has to be said not so much now as it used to be before in. Because as Vanilla said, there is a history, it's a very special history in France of Jews and Muslims coming from the same countries who were neighbors once upon a time and who are neighbors again in the same. In the same neighborhoods in big cities in France nowadays. So they have, let's say, mixed feelings, both nostalgia and interest to the Arabic culture and. And sometimes they feel very close to their Arabic Muslim neighbors. And sometimes on the opposite, they feel uncomfortable, let's say. And, and, and they react more or less violently inwards to, inwards on. In words to, to the, to the general climate.

[A]

Masha, can I just. You had a question? You, can you just clarify? You teach at a Jewish day school?

[D]

Yeah, yeah, I did teach. I teach French, French literature.

[A]

French literature at a Jewish day school. And you know, I'm curious, like, you know, what are the security concerns there? Do you guys have a metal detector? Do you, do you have no signage outside same where you are? How do you guys assess the security risk?

[D]

So, of course, very good question. Of course, in France, we are used to have a maximum security for all Jewish places. So you can't. So there are, first of all, there are several policemen standing in front of the school every morning. Second thing, you also have members from the Jewish security task who will stand in front of the school during the whole day. And in order to get in, you have to show a special card to show that you're part of the, of the, of the other school, whether as a teacher or as a student. And then you can get in. But you don't have any metal detector.

[A]

Can I ask, how was it? I mean, were you there after. In 2014? There was, sorry, 2012. 2012, I think 2012, there was a horrible shooting in Toulouse of Jewish school children and teachers and parents. Were you teaching at this school at the time or no, where you are now?

[D]

Not at all. Because at that time I was a correspondent for the French radio in Moscow.

[A]

I see.

[D]

So that was another life. But, but I, I will, I, I can tell you that at that time. Well, this, well, since then, the security has since been, has been enhanced in front of Jewish schools. There is a question. Does the French government pay for security? Yes, they do. Absolutely. Jewish schools can also choose to have their own people standing in front of the school. But you will also always have policemen and sometimes even the army warding.

[A]

Can I ask you, Masha, you know, I think this is a question that some Americans might have. You have all this security, you have these security risks. Do your students, do they. Your families? Do you, do you want to stay in France? Do you want to leave?

[D]

So Jews have been leaving France since year 2k because it became difficult for them to live in the neighborhoods where they were living because of a high insecurity for everybody, but especially for Jews and because of the deterioration of the education system and the risks that Jewish students had to be bullied as Jews in Their schools in some neighborhoods. So Jews started moving away, mostly to Israel, since year 2000. They also started leaving because they said that it was difficult to be a Jew, religiously speaking, in France, and that it would be easier in isra. You also have some people who leave for personal reasons, whether because they are Zionists or because they want to have a new life somewhere else. You know, this is also a reason. Are Jews who still live in France scared? I would say that in 2015, as you know, there have been several attacks in France since then. Jews stopped being the only. Well, the most the first victims of terrorist attacks. And the whole nation became concerned about it. So maybe this makes Jews feel more part of a French community. And I feel like people, Jewish people have stopped living as much so since then. I don't know if you have the numbers, but this is what I remember from what I saw also. I mean, it's not constant. Some years show high rates of exodus.

[A]

I had two questions, and then we'll end with Stefan before we go to Q and A, you know, so when you speak to your students or their parents, where do they see their future? Do they see their future as being in France, in Israel, in the United States, elsewhere?

[D]

So this is a very interesting question. We have an association of teachers teaching in Jewish schools, non Jewish subjects, and some teachers, especially in history teachers, try to teach the history of Jews in France and to teach the French young Jews how Jews were living here in the Middle Ages, for example, before they were expelled, or in the 19th century or in the 20th century, and to show that there is a Jewish presence in France, which is extremely important and which has been important for hundreds of years. Rashi was, of course, French, as you all know. So we try to build a French Jewish identity. Now, even if people leave France, I feel like, at least for the first generation, they still feel French and still feel like they might go back to France when they move to the US or to Israel. And some people do come back to France, especially from Israel, because life is too difficult or for some other reasons or because they miss their country. So it's not always a permanent move. But I have to say that more and more Jews, especially in the very traditional community, which I see at my school, more and more young people see their future in. In the US for example. But this is also, you know, that might also be because they watch Netflix cereals and they're interested in life in the U.S. you know, that also plays a role, especially for teenagers. But in the end, you know, they like, they Enjoy their, their lifestyle here because it's a very sweet life.

[A]

Just before we go to Stefan and then we go to the question and answer, you know, obviously we're here with Yivo and, you know, so we'd have a special interest in the state of Yiddish culture and language in France. Where does that stand today? Where does Yiddishkeit. Where does. Where is Yiddish land in France? Where is that?

[D]

Yeah, just one person is saying, as a Jew living in France, I would say it is not so awful to live in this country. Fully agree. Not so awful. On the opposite, we have. It's actually quite interesting and nice. Yes. About Yiddish. So there are two. Two parts, you know, in the Yiddish world, there is the Yiddishistic part, the Yiddishist part and the siddish part. And in Europe you will find siddim speaking Yiddish as a daily language in Great Britain, in Belgium, in Switzerland, and that's it. As for the Yiddishist world, you have a very big Yiddish center here in France with many books, which is the house for the Yiddish culture in Paris, and people coming from Europe to study Yiddish at that center and producing very interesting work translating into French or into English, some works from Yiddish or translating into Yiddish, some words from other languages, and also writing in Yiddish and doing some studies. And there are people coming from Belgium doing that from Eastern Europe. And we also have an important center in Vilnius in Lithuania. So you have some Yiddish centers all around Europe. Especially I would say in. In Lithuania and here in Paris. But of course, that Yiddishist Yiddish is more cultural verse of the Yiddish language, whereas the Yiddish is more daily life aspect of it.

[A]

So. Thank you.

[C]

I just would say something because afterward I would forget when you say it's not awful to live in France. I agree. For. I mean, for people like us who are living in the center of Paris is not the same situation that. I mean, the whole Jewish world who live in a suburb and we talk. Of course, there is a massive phenomenon since 20 years called in French interior, the Alia interior. It was very much studied in sociology. So a lot of parts of the Jewish world in all kind of different era in the suburb basically came in other part just because they want to find back a normal life. So it's. I don't know if awful is the word, but it's a sociological phenomenon we can't avoid to. To see in France.

[A]

I mean, I'm just going to.

[C]

How would you say? Allia interior.

[A]

An interior, Alia interior migration. But Stefan, I think you're making an important point. I just want to make several Points and then ask you a question and then we will go to Q and A first. I noticed that someone in the chat mentioned Ethan Katz's book the Burdens of Brotherhood, which is about French Jewish Muslim relations. I highly recommend it to all of you. I should also add that Ethan is my advisor here at UC Berkeley, so he and I know each other quite well. Great book. And he's the reason I'm here at Berkeley, in fact. So, yeah, I was pleased to see that come up in our chat. The other thing I wanted to mention is that I do see these comments about how French Jewish life is not nightmarish. I'm not French, as you might be able to tell from my accent, but I live there part of the year and I lived there permanently for two years. And I don't think that any of us wants to present a nightmarish picture of French Jewish life. French Jewish life in many ways is still extremely vital from a whole host of cultural and social and intellectual institutions. French Jewry remains a beacon, I would say, of Jewish culture in Europe and worldwide. And it is the third largest Jewish community in the world. What we are speaking to is not this idea of imminent death or that people wander on the streets and feel in danger of their lives all the time, but rather a certain malaise that has to do with feeling that certain neighborhoods have become unsafe for Jewish communities, that visibility as a Jew can sometimes be dangerous, and that there is a disjuncture between the Jewish experience and a larger French experience which does not always understand the particular challenges of being Jewish. So we don't want to dramatize that and we don't want to undermine and we don't want to downplay it. And I think if you read our magazine, you'll see that we don't. But on that note, I wanted to ask Stefan to tell us a bit about what sort of content, what sort of reporting, what sort of stories we are running in Kah from France, but also from all of Europe. Just to give you guys a better idea of what we're doing.

[C]

I can be very concrete on that. I would say, for instance, each week we publish three new pieces and we try at the same time to find a balance between reportage, report, journalist, text, column on more academic, philosophical, sociological and more theoretical text about all the kind of issue we could have talked about until now. So for instance, in the last, if I see the last piece we published, I see a piece about the phenomenon, the phenomenon, Zemur phenomenon, which is this far right ultra racist Jewish guy who is going to enter, wants to run for the party in France. So it's a very complex phenomenon and we probably there will have a lot of pieces to analysis. This character, Erich Zemour, I don't know at what point you already hear about him in the United States, for instance, Jean Marie Le Pen, you must know him three days ago in Le Mans, said Eric Zemour and I, we think exactly the same thing, but he's Jewish, so it's easier for him. So you can imagine how it's a problem to understand that kind of character for us. We also publish a piece about the complex dispute on polemics, about the memorialization of Babi Yah because It was the 80 anniversary of the Babiya massacre. So the fact is that since 1955, since the end of the war in Babiyar in Kiev, there is no consensus about what there is to build there to memorialize this tragic event. So it's a long piece about, about the history of the problem and also very much in the field of the problem.

[A]

Steve, I'm just going to cut you off just to say I want to emphasize that we do have very much a European focus and coverage. If you go on our website, which I encourage you to do, and we are going to have a slide showing you some details about how to be in touch with us, remain in touch, lead us. You know, we've covered topics like disputes among German historians about Holocaust memory, Jewish publishing in Italy, the Hungarian government's manipulation of the Jewish community there for its own political ends. As Stepan was saying, this question of how to build a memorial to the victims of Babi Yar in Ukraine. So we are Franco centric, but we want to be less so. That's always our goal. We want to have a broad reach and we really encourage people to be in touch with us, either with their ideas about articles, pitches or their feedback. And we are really looking to have a broad continent wide conversation. But we also understand that, you know, places like Yivo are in some ways outposts of European Jewry historically in the United States. So that's one of the reasons that we care about being in touch with our American community as well. And I think Jane was going to do the Q and A. Yeah.

[B]

Hi. So I'm happy to read out a few questions from one of the many questions we have in our Q and A to everyone who's watching. You're welcome to go ahead and type your question in the Q and A. Now if you have something that has occurred to you. First off, we'll say maybe back to the very basics. We have some questions about the title of K. How did it or K how did it come about? And what does it mean?

[C]

Okay. The entire title of the review is K Jews Europe the 21st century. And K came from. Originally we thought about the Jewish question, but of course it was not smart to stay with that title. And we think about who was the most beautiful character of the Jewish European modern literature. And we thought about Joseph K. Of the Castle, about Kafka, and we finally choose K because of in reference to Joseph, Kah and Kafka. But we like the idea. It's a little bit mysterious.

[A]

Also, we actually got a complaint from a French journal of Kafka studies saying that we stole their name and we basically told them to sod off. So very good.

[B]

So, as some folks have already been clarified, the magazine publishes itself online in French and in English. I'm curious to echo a question from the audience about the languages that K has chosen. Why those two languages? Do you accept contributions from folks who speak other European languages? What is your method of finding contributors in addition to, of course, accepting pitches from the general public?

[C]

We translated a lot of text from different language that in English. So there is text written directly in French, written directly in English, but also written in Italian, in German, in Hungarian, etc. And each time we make translation both in French on in English, we think, of course, to build a page in which all the language of Europe could be read. But of course it's very difficult. But sometime our contributor from outside France or English world in Germany, everybody read it in English. In Scandinavia it's the same. But for instance, I remember in Italia they asked for an Italian version. So we leave an Italian version on the site to let them circulate in Italian, for instance. And we want to develop that. But of course it's difficult to create a third entrance door. So. But it's something we think about. And there is Yiddish also, sometimes directly publish in the in the magazine.

[B]

Wonderful. Another question from our audience members is talking about the role of intermarriage in the kind of things you've spoken about already in terms of Jewish identity, specifically in Europe.

[C]

I'm not sure I could precisely answer this question. I know, Masha, you have ID more

[D]

precise than I surely know that traditional rabbis here in France are very concerned about intermarriage, about interfaith marriages. So it is actually question because the assimilation of Jews leads to also less Jews. But you also have more liberal communities that accept interfaith couples into their Synagogues. And that gives a possibility to these couples to have to give a Jewish education to their children. But this is something very new here in France. So we'll see what happens when these more liberal communities grow. We'll see what will be their effects on the education of young Jewish people.

[A]

If I could just jump in on that very briefly, Masha, I wanted to. Yeah. I would reiterate that in France, the liberal Jewish endeavor is quite minuscule. The liberal Jewish presence, Reformer, conservative, Missouri or liberal, is quite minimal at this point. Though there are some synagogues in Paris which draw quite an audience. You know, they draw quite an audience, but they're still kind of minimal. The way that French Jewish life works religiously is that there is a consistory which was set up essentially it was a state body. Now it is a community body which runs religious life for almost all of the country. For all the Jews. It's the central consistory. The central consistory of French Jewry. And it is Orthodox body, not living.

[D]

I'm just saying.

[A]

And then you have other synagogues which are not affiliated for consistory, which are more liberal. But the consistory will not perform an intermarriage. And of course, you know, the question of intermarriage in France is as fraught as it is in the United States.

[D]

So sorry about that. The situation in France is that there is. France in general is a very centralized country, especially since the French Revolution and since Napoleon I. It's a very centralized country, and so is Judaism, because the Emperor Napoleon commanded the Jews to have one central consistoire consistory, which would be the equivalent of the great, with one great rabbi, which would be the equivalent of the great rabbi in Israel. So there is kind of a hierarchy here in France that doesn't exist in. In. In the US One other point is that apart from the consistoir. Consistory in France, it has always. There have always been other communities which are not part of that central systems which were either more liberal, but this is quite recent, or more Orthodox, since the 19th century, are coming from Russia and that were very different from these French Israelites. So there have always been other communities which are not part of the central. Of this central system. But we have to add to this aspect the fact that, as I said, many Jews here in France are Sephardic Jews from North Africa. And they have their particular relation to religion, which is that if you take an Ashkenazi Jew here in France, he will be either completely assimilated or extremely religious, like of Hasidic obedience or author Orthodox. A sephardic Jew is very much in the middle and what comes to them is also family and, and to be part of a community. So it's a very different approach. And because of that there is less or I don't know how to say, but there is less diversity because people don't act as much as individuals in this case they act more as families. And a family, you know, they all go to the same synagogue. It's not as much as in the US where each individual can choose their own path. Third point, French Jews are very much linked, especially in the more religious communities to Israel. So since Israel recognizes only the consistoire in France as a religious authority, Jews here in France don't want quite often to be part of communities which are not recognized by Israel because they want to be able to move to Israel because they are so linked to Israel, because Zionism is so strong. So they will be part of synagogue of a community which is in the central system of the. Does that answer your question? We can't hear you, Tanya.

[A]

I think that's a very good summary of these. Of these I'm not sure. Did Jane have other Q&As that she wanted us to get to?

[B]

One more question that I will ask. So from one of the questions from our audience, Yivo is based in New York City and so many of our constituents and folks who attend our programs are also Americans though especially with so many pratcher program being online. I know many of you listening are from all over the world, but I definitely think we're all very self centered in thinking about Americans. So a question from the audience was wondering how does the role of American Jewry play into both the magazine and you know, perhaps your own thoughts about European Jewish culture as well. And then this will probably be our last question because we'll need to wrap up after that.

[A]

Stefan, do you want to go on this?

[C]

I mean how is it kind of. I would begin to answer by saying that we feel your Jewry, we feel small between two massive groups and small and maybe weak between two massive groups. American Judaism and Israel of course. And one of the issue for us is to build bond reflection and discussion of course with intellectual coming from the States and coming from Israel and to. To. To.

[A]

To.

[C]

To. To build a European voice, pluralist, but one European voice who could also speak with these two massive, massive world between which we feel small.

[A]

If I can, Stefan, if I could just intervene because I think it's a very relevant question. I think there are several aspects to it which I will try to Be brief in responding to one is that, as Stefan said, French Jewry, European Jewry, is sometimes lost in this bipolar world, Israel and America. And so we want to help magnify, to help accentuate the European Jewish voice, but we cannot do so without being in dialogue with America and Israel, just given where the demographics are today. That's part of it. Another part of it is that American Jewry, of course, despite its woes over the past few years, embodies still, I think, successful integration and can serve as a model for certain questions of how one preserves group identity and also remains integrated within a larger society. And so it can help French Jews and European Jews in comparative perspective deal with that question and process it. The third thing is that there's no understanding of European Jewry today without the tie to American Jewry. And that's because American Jewry largely constructed post war European Jewry. Basically all the French institutions of Jewish life were set up by the Joint Distribution Committee, the American Jewish Committee, after the war. And then, of course, I'm sure that you all know that in Eastern Europe, the World Jewish Congress, a whole host of Jewish institutions, have been instrumental in structuring post Soviet Jewish life. So American Jewry is very much present in Europe in that sense, and its example is relevant. So that is why we choose to address ourselves to American Jewry in large part. Anyway, I hope that answers the question.

[B]

Oh, there are certainly many more questions from our audience members and I'm sure many more questions to come. But thank you so much to our wonderful panelists and for our moderator for beginning such an interesting discussion. If you're interested, you're welcome to follow the writings of K online. And of course, we'd also love to encourage you to support yivo by registering for our future events. So thank you very much.

[A]

Jean, could you just show the slideshow with the.

[B]

Yeah, I'll show the screen. So. But yeah, thanks to everyone for joining us today and do connect with our panelists if you have further questions. The email address I'll put on the screen now.

[A]

Yeah, that's just the last slide. And as I said, we really welcome your contributions, your opinions. You can find my email and Stephane's email here. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you can read us the English edition at that first link. And of course, if you want to drop us a small donation, we never say no to that either. And I really want to thank Jane and Alex at EVO for helping us put this together. Thank you all also for bearing with us, despite the technical difficulties and we really look forward to being in touch and having an ongoing conversation.

[B]

Wonderful. Thank you all so much for being part of today's conversation and absolutely looking forward to continuing the conversation. Thank you.

[C]

And.