EUROPE AND THE JEWS | THE DEEP HISTORY TILL PRESENT

Global Affairs Session 47 03 June 2026

EUROPE AND THE JEWS

Faith, persecution and the long return home

Jewish communities have lived in Europe for two thousand years, contributing deeply to its trade, science and culture while repeatedly facing expulsion, exclusion and violence. That long history culminated in the Holocaust of the 1930s and 40s, the resurgence of modern Zionism, and the founding of Israel in 1948. In 2026, Jewish life is more concentrated in Israel and North America than ever, even as European communities rebuild in the shadow of renewed antisemitism.

History in Europe The 1930s and 40s Resurgence of Zionism After the 1950s Jews in 2026 The future

History of Jews in Europe

Jewish communities have lived in Europe since ancient Roman times, growing over the centuries into major populations across Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. Their history on the continent combines deep contribution with recurring, often violent, exclusion.

• Ancient roots, wide settlement. Jews lived in Europe from Roman times onward, gradually forming significant communities from the Iberian peninsula to the Russian empire.
• Outsider status in medieval Europe. Jews were frequently barred from land ownership, craft guilds, government service and many professions, pushing communities toward trade and finance instead.
• Major contributions despite persecution. Jewish communities became central to trade, medicine, finance, philosophy, scholarship, translation and urban life across medieval and early modern Europe.
• Repeated expulsions and massacres. Between the 11th and 15th centuries, Jews were repeatedly expelled and attacked, including the expulsion from England in 1290 and from Spain in 1492.
• Emancipation and its double edge. The 18th and 19th centuries brought gradual emancipation, giving many European Jews citizenship and civil rights, especially in the west, even as greater integration provoked new forms of racial antisemitism.

What happened in the 1930s and 40s

Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 began the Holocaust period, dated to 1945. Legal persecution escalated into organised mass murder, ending with roughly six million Jewish men, women and children killed.

• Hitler comes to power, 1933. The Nazi Party's rise to power in Germany marks the start of the Holocaust period, generally dated from 1933 to 1945.
• Legal exclusion. Nazi laws stripped Jews of rights, jobs, businesses, citizenship and public dignity; the 1935 Nuremberg Laws legally defined Jews as racial outsiders.
• Kristallnacht, November 1938. Violence intensified through the late 1930s, culminating in coordinated attacks on synagogues, Jewish homes and businesses across Germany and Austria.
• Ghettos and camps. During the Second World War, Nazi Germany and its collaborators established ghettos, concentration camps and extermination camps across occupied Europe.
• Six million murdered. Around six million Jewish men, women and children were killed in the Holocaust, the defining catastrophe of modern Jewish history.

Resurgence of modern Zionism

Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century as a movement for Jewish national revival, gaining urgency from antisemitism, persecution and the Holocaust. It culminated in the founding of Israel in 1948, which by 2026 had become the world's largest Jewish population centre.

• A late 19th-century movement. Modern Zionism grew as a movement for Jewish national revival and security in the ancestral land of Israel/Palestine.
• Rising immigration. Jewish immigration to Palestine increased through the early 20th century and rose sharply because of antisemitism, persecution and the Holocaust.
• Statehood, 14 May 1948. David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, realising the Zionist movement's central goal.
• Absorbing the diaspora. After 1948, Israel absorbed Holocaust survivors and Jews leaving Arab countries, Europe, the Soviet Union, Ethiopia and other regions.
• World's largest Jewish population, 2026. Israel's official 2026 Independence Day data put the country's population at 10.244 million, including 7.790 million "Jews and Others."

What happened after the 1950s — Jews and Europe

Postwar European Jewish life was shaped first by devastation and emigration, then by decades of suppression under Communism in the east, a slow revival after 1989-91, and renewed anxiety about antisemitism since the 2000s.

• Postwar devastation and emigration. Surviving Jewish communities in Europe were devastated after the Second World War; many survivors emigrated to Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia or Latin America.
• Rebuilding in Western Europe. Western Europe slowly rebuilt Jewish institutions: synagogues, schools, cultural centres, museums and Holocaust memorial bodies.
• Suppression under Communism. Eastern European Jewish life was heavily constrained under Communist regimes, especially in the Soviet bloc, where religion and Jewish identity were often suppressed.
• Revival after 1989-91. Jewish life revived in parts of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, though communities remained much smaller than before the Holocaust.
• Renewed anxiety since the 2000s. European Jews have faced renewed anxiety due to antisemitism from far-right extremism, Islamist extremism and some anti-Israel radicalism.

Jews in 2026

Jews remain a small global minority, concentrated overwhelmingly in Israel and the United States, with a diverse and evolving identity. Antisemitism is again seen as a major concern across Europe, even as Jewish communities remain active across nearly every field of public life.

• A small global minority. Jews are roughly 0.2% of the world population, with the largest communities in Israel and the United States.
• Israel's national majority. Israel is the only country where Jews form a national majority, and nearly half of the world's Jews live there.
• A diverse identity. Jewish identity in 2026 spans religious, secular, traditional, Zionist, non-Zionist, ultra-Orthodox, liberal, conservative and culturally Jewish self-descriptions.
• Antisemitism as a live concern. A European Commission Eurobarometer survey found that 55% of Europeans consider antisemitism a problem in their country, and 47% believe it has increased over the previous five years.
• Active across public life. Jewish communities remain active in education, science, business, arts, politics, technology and philanthropy, while investing heavily in security, remembrance and identity preservation.

The future

Jewish life is likely to become even more centred on Israel and North America, while European communities, though smaller, remain culturally significant. The central challenge ahead is balancing memory of persecution with the confident renewal of Jewish life worldwide.

• Centred on Israel and North America. Jewish life will likely become even more centred around Israel and North America, while European Jewish communities may remain smaller but culturally significant.
• Europe's antisemitism test. The future of Jews in Europe will depend heavily on whether European governments can seriously tackle antisemitism, protect Jewish institutions and educate against Holocaust denial.
• Israel's many variables. Israel's future will be shaped by security, democracy, demography, religion-state relations, regional diplomacy and its relations with Palestinians and neighbouring countries.
• A more varied identity. Jewish identity will probably become more varied, expressed through religion, secularism, culture, memory, ethics, language and connection to Israel.
• Balancing memory and renewal. The central challenge for the future is remembering persecution and the Holocaust while continuing to build confident, creative, secure Jewish communities worldwide.

Value addition

Glossary and related terms

Diaspora

Communities of a people living dispersed outside their ancestral homeland, as Jewish communities did across Europe and elsewhere for nearly two millennia.

Ashkenazi

Jews historically linked to Central and Eastern Europe, one of the major Jewish ethnic and cultural divisions.

Sephardi

Jews historically linked to Spain, Portugal and their diaspora communities, another major Jewish ethnic and cultural division.

Mizrahi

Jews historically linked to the Middle East and North Africa, distinct from Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities.

Antisemitism

Hostility, prejudice or discrimination directed against Jews as a religious, ethnic or national group.

Nuremberg Laws

1935 Nazi legislation that stripped German Jews of citizenship and legally defined them as racial outsiders.

Kristallnacht

The "Night of Broken Glass," a November 1938 wave of coordinated attacks on synagogues, Jewish homes and businesses across Nazi Germany.

Holocaust

The systematic, state-organised murder of around six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.

Zionism

A movement, originating in the late 19th century, for Jewish national revival and self-determination in the ancestral land of Israel.

Aliyah

Jewish immigration to Israel, regarded within Zionism as a "return" or "ascent" to the ancestral homeland.

Emancipation (Jewish)

The 18th- and 19th-century process by which European states granted Jews citizenship and civil rights, ending centuries of legal exclusion.

Ultra-Orthodox

The most religiously traditional and observant stream of Judaism, one of several strands within contemporary Jewish identity.

Eurobarometer

A regular European Commission survey series tracking public opinion across European Union member states, including on antisemitism.

Holocaust denial

The rejection or distortion of the historical record of the Holocaust, treated by most European governments as a serious form of antisemitism.

Value addition

Conceptual references

• Historical scholarship on Jewish settlement, exclusion and emancipation in medieval and early modern Europe.
• Holocaust history and documentation, including the Nuremberg Laws and Kristallnacht.
• Zionist thought and the historical record of Israel's founding and early absorption of immigrants.
• Comparative studies of postwar Jewish life in Western versus Communist-era Eastern Europe.
• European Commission Eurobarometer survey data on contemporary antisemitism.