Introduction

This special issue of Jewish Culture and History arose from an international conference on ‘Jewish Identities in Contemporary Europe’, which was held in April 2011 at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies in London. Less than two years before, in May 2009, an article had appeared in The Guardian posing the question: ‘What is the future for Europe’s Jews?’1 Its subtitle, ‘What vision of the Jewish community in Europe will allow it to flourish – is it independent and creative, or an embattled outpost of Israel?’, pointed to the issue that has been at the centre of debate among Jews themselves ever since the state of Israel was established in 1948: the relationship between the state of Israel and the Jewish diaspora.