After 1500 years, Jewish life could be over in Europe
After 1500 years, Jewish life could be over in Europe

In 2013, late historian Robert S. Wistrich, then head of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for Anti-Semitism Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, declared that in the current climate European Jewry would have “10-20 years" left.

Moshe Kantor, founder of the World Holocaust Forum, said it again in Jerusalem: “Antisemitism could be a slippery slope to a global catastrophe. It is a possibility that in 30 years there will be no Jews in Europe”. Despite the famous and miraculous Jewish resilience, the writing appears to be on the wall: European Jewish life in 2050 could be a souvenir.

That is why I just wrote - in Italian - a book titled “Europe without Jews. Antisemitism and the betrayal of the West.”

Meotti book on European Jewry
Meotti book on European JewryINN:GM

In 1977, France had about 700.000 Jews. Today they are less than 500.000. It has been calculated that 60.000 of them will leave the country in the next 20 years (60.000 already left in the last 10 years).

Toulouse had a community of 20.000. Now they are 10.000. Nice also had a Jewish congregation of 20.000. Now they are about 5.000. At least 80 percent of Jews left the Seine-Saint-Denis to find a more secure home elsewhere in France. Jewish symbols have vanished all over the country. And Jewish life can today exist only behind barbed wires, cameras, security doors and police patrols.

In the last two years, Germany experienced a dramatic wave of anti-Jewish attacks and one must be masochistic or mad to continue Jewish life as if nothing has happened.

There is not a single Jewish leader – from the head of Marseille's Jewish community to Brussels' chief rabbi – who didn't advise their congregations to stop wearing Jewish symbols in public.
Most of the Jewish communities in Italy are disappearing except those in Rome and Milan, where Jews also declined from 6.505 in 1996 to 5.244 today. Dutch Jews, except for the Orthodox, are almost all assimilated. Sweden is a nightmare for Jews and the very mention of Malmö can be terrifying. Jewish life in Denmark and Norway is already not viable. Belgian Jews are also under siege and many synagogues were sold and closed. British Jews can survive only if Orthodox Judaism takes over and stops the process of assimilation.

There is not a single Jewish leader – from the head of Marseille's Jewish community to Brussels' chief rabbi – who didn't advise their congregations to stop wearing Jewish symbols in public.

Jewish students are hiding their identity everywhere, from Amsterdam to Oslo, from Berlin to Paris.

Jewish life could continue in the future but only underground. Jews will have to adopt a passive, silent and humble profile, as if they don't exist anymore in public. So for the first time in 1.500 years, a real Jewish life in Europe could be terminated. But probably, this is what the Holocaust already achieved. What would French Jewry constitute today if it was not for Jews who came from Algeria in the 60s? What would constitute German Jewry today if it was not for Jews who came from Russia after the 90s or Israeli expats?

Kantor is right. In 30 years, all could be over. But Europe will be over as well. 

Giulio Meotti an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. HIs other books are in Italian. Meotti's writing has appeared in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Gatestone, Frontpage and Commentary.