Nationalism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism have been rising in Europe. Will this illiberal turn be exacerbated by COVID-19?

Welcome to the new JQ.

This issue investigates rising global populism, and the forces propelling modern nativism and xenophobia. In wide-ranging, lively essays, Simon Schama explores the age-old tropes of Jews as both purveyors of disease and monopolists of medical wisdom, in the wake of a global pandemic; Holly Case takes us by train to Hungary; Mikolaj Grynberg reflects on Poland’s commitment to forgetting its atrocities; and Deborah Lipstadt puts white supremacy under the microscope, examining its antisemitic DNA.

Recently discovered letters about Israel from Isaiah Berlin to Robert Silvers are published here for the first time. In new sections on History and Community, Ian Black revisits a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Elliot Perlman traces the roots of the Jewish farmers in Uganda. And in three insightful, erudite book reviews, Hadley Freeman, Benjamin Balint and Robert Manne cast light on second-generation Holocaust memoirs and the work of Paul Celan and G tz Aly.

The Return of History is a truly global issue, bringing together esteemed, well-known voices and those you’ll be exhilarated to read for the first time.

The Jewish Quarterly is an independent international publication that has cultivated literary journalism of the highest standard for almost seventy years. Its aim is to explore Jewish issues, and issues of humanity from a Jewish perspective, with clarity, depth and originality.