Panel Discussion: European Jews in the 21st Century

What is the status of Jews in Europe in the 21st century? How do they maintain vital communities? Do they desire to remain in Europe? To remain Jewish? Where are the trendlines headed? A mere 0.1% of Europe’s population is Jewish. Proportionally, this figure is at its lowest since the turn of the first millennium. European Jews’ numbers have continued to decline even after the Holocaust. Once a major center of world Jewry, Europe often goes largely unmentioned in conversations about the global Jewish community.

K., the European Jewish Review, is a new magazine founded in March 2021 to document and analyze the current situation of the 1.3 million Jews living in Europe. The magazine is devoted to reporting from and fostering dialogue across all the various communities of European Jewry.

Daniel Solomon, the English-language editor of K. will lead a discussion with members of the editorial board of K.: Stéphane Bou (Editor of chief of K., European Jewish Review), Bruno Karsenti (Distinguished Professor, EHESS), and Danny Trom (Senior Researcher, EHESS). The conversation will focus on issues that loom over the Jewish future in Europe, including antisemitism, immigration and integration.

About the Participants
Stéphane Bou is a veteran of the French media, having served as the oped editor of the magazine Marianne, reporter for Charlie Hebdo, reviewer for the Le Canard Enchaîné and a senior producer for Radio France. Bou, in addition to serving as editor-in-chief of K., now leads journalism seminars at École Normale Supérieure/Paris Saclay and France’s national audiovisual archive. He has directed several national television documentaries in Russia, and co-written books with Saul Friedlander and Elisabeth de Fontenay.

Bruno Karsenti is distinguished professor and former vice-president of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He has published research on Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss. His most recent volume is La question juive des modernes. Philosophie de l’émancipation.

Daniel Solomon, senior editor of K., runs the magazine’s English-language edition. He is a doctoral student in history at the University of California-Berkeley and received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard. He is a former reporter at the Forward. His studies center on French and European Jews.

Danny Trom is a senior researcher for France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique based at Paris’ École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. Trom, a sociologist, has published influential works on the current state of the French Jewish community, including La France sans les Juifs et La perseverance du fait Juif. He is a frequent commentator in the French press, appearing in such outlets as France Culture and Le Figaro.

Ticket Info: Free; register at yivo.org/21st-Century-Europe for a Zoom link