Europe is losing its religion, and its Jews.

As cathedrals turn into nightclubs and faith gives way to nihilism, Europe’s moral collapse is driving out the very people who once embodied its conscience.

photo: Nomadic Julien/Unsplash

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This is a guest essay by Yaniv Weissman, who writes the newsletter, “Global Forces: Where Energy, Politics, and Science Converge.”

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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Europe, largely godless in its majority, is transforming its ancient churches into dance clubs and entertainment centers.

“There’s no going back” was the headline of a fascinating article from Fortune magazine describing the trend across Europe, especially in its western part, which nurtured Christianity for most of 2,000 years. Churches, monasteries, and chapels stand empty and neglected more and more as faith and church attendance have diminished over the past half-century.

“It hurts. I won’t hide that. On the other hand, there’s no going back,” said Monsignor Johan Bonny, the Bishop of Antwerp, to the Associated Press news agency.

Something must be done, and now, more and more buildings that were once sacred are being repurposed for everything from clothing stores and climbing walls to nightclubs. This is a phenomenon seen throughout much of Christian Europe’s heartland, from Germany to Italy, and many nations in between. It’s particularly prominent in Flanders, northern Belgium, which houses some of the continent’s largest cathedrals and finest art. If only it had enough believers.

A 2018 study by the Pew Research Group showed that in Belgium, of 83 percent who say they were raised as Christians, only 55 percent still consider themselves as such. Only 10 percent of Belgians still attend church regularly.

The social implication is that Europe has developed an alternative to that value system that serves as a source of personal identity, community connection, morality, and more. People might find it in climate activism or secular organizations like these and others.

This phenomenon accompanies Western life in general, and it’s no wonder, therefore, that the motto “YOLO - You Only Live Once” has become so widespread. While this popular saying expresses an indisputable fact, it leads to a search for meaningless lives which prioritize a hedonistic lifestyle that has replaced the church with the entertainment industry. Actors, singers, and Instagram influencers have become objects of worship due to the glamorous and good lives that the best public relations firms pump out across the media.

Today, it’s difficult to assess the contribution of the “God is dead” movement to the European lifestyle, but we can assess the impact of demographic changes. In France alone, more mosques and Muslim prayer centers have been built in the last 30 years than Catholic churches in the last century, with France now having more than 1,500 mosques — nearly as many as exist in Istanbul, Turkey. In the last five years, the Catholic Church has built 20 churches, mostly in Paris, Pontoise, and Nice, while 60 churches have been decommissioned.

The Muslim population in Europe has grown significantly. France has approximately 5.72 million Muslims, Germany 4.95 million, and the United Kingdom 4.13 million. Muslims make up roughly five percent of Europe’s population overall, though in some countries like France and Sweden, the Muslim share is higher.

Research across 11 European cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Paris, and Stockholm shows Muslim communities concentrated in specific neighborhoods, with Muslims being three times more likely to live in areas significantly dominated by ethnic or religious minorities.

The immigration crisis facing Europe represents one of the most significant demographic shifts in modern history. Recent data shows that, as of 2024, the foreign-born population in European Union countries has increased to 14.1 percent from 13.6 percent in 2023, with a total of 63.3 million migrants residing in the European Union, of whom 71.4 percent come from outside the European Union. After peaking at 6.2 million in 2022, migrant inflows dropped to 4 million in 2023, with 77 percent coming from non-European Union countries. As of October 2024, Italy registered the largest number of sea arrivals with 53,000 immigrants, followed by Spain with 42,000 arrivals.

The relationship between immigration and crime in Europe remains one of the most contentious issues in contemporary politics, with research presenting a complex and often contradictory picture. However, specific studies reveal more nuanced findings. A 2024 study by Lund University found that nearly two-thirds of convicted rapists in Sweden since 2000 were first- or second-generation immigrants.

The flight of Jews from Europe represents one of the most alarming indicators of the continent’s deteriorating social fabric. A 2024 survey by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights revealed that 80 percent of Jewish respondents feel that antisemitism has grown in their country in the five years before the survey, with 90 percent encountering antisemitism online.

The statistics are staggering. Since 1972, approximately 100,000 Jews have left France, most emigrating to the United States. French Jews show a particular spike in interest: 6,500 people opened case files to immigrate, representing a 500-percent increase from just over 1,000 people during the same period the previous year. According to the latest data, since Hamas’ attack on Israel in October 2023, 1,100 French Jews moved to Israel last year. This year, approximately 4,500 Jews will leave France.

A survey of Jewish community leaders in Europe found that 23 percent said they were considering emigrating, with more than two-thirds of respondents saying they expected antisemitism to increase in Europe over the next decade. Just 12 percent of respondents said they believed it was “very safe” to live and practice openly as a Jew in their own city, down from 36 percent in 2008.

The situation has prompted stark warnings from religious leaders. Rabbi Meir Bar Hen, the Chief Rabbi of Barcelona, invited Jews to pack their belongings: “This place is lost. It’s better to leave early than late” for Israel. The community is “under attack” both because of radical Islam and because of the authorities’ unwillingness to confront it. “I encouraged them (the Jews) to buy a house in Israel.”

“Jews have no future in Europe,” echoed Rabbi Abraham Gigi, the Chief Rabbi of Brussels.

What remains of Jewish life in Europe today operates like this: Synagogues are fortified compounds. Schools have no signs but many private police and security guards. Homes have removed external mezuzahs. Jews don’t wear kippahs on the street or Star of David necklaces. They don’t give their Hebrew family names to taxi drivers. They tell their children not to speak Hebrew in public. There are no Israeli flags in their windows.

Are these Jewish lives?

The survey data confirms this grim reality: 76 percent of European Jews hide their Jewish identity at least occasionally and 34 percent avoid Jewish events or sites because they do not feel safe. As a reaction to online antisemitism, 24 percent avoid posting content that would identify them as Jewish, 23 percent say that they limited their participation in online discussions, and 16 percent reduced their use of certain platforms.

What’s most surprising is that European leaders show great tolerance toward the waves of Jewish emigration from their countries — people who are affluent, businesspeople, media figures, engineers, doctors, scientists — and their voices are silenced. Silence.

Yes, there are statements about the need to fight antisemitism, but not much is done by authorities to preserve the civil rights of European Jews. In practice, Jews are placed in consent ghettos of silent agreement, and the grave situation is that the attackers gain broader influence and incentives and are not pursued by law enforcement.

In practice, extreme expressions have been adopted in the West in recent years due to the cowardice of politicians who sought votes from new audiences. Climate movements, for example, pushed decision-makers to adopt an agenda that drove energy prices across Europe sky-high and created excessive dependence on weather regarding the supply of water, electricity, heating, public systems, and more. This policy gave dictatorial countries like China and Russia the upper hand regarding control over energy sources and rare metals that are the basis for military power, which Russia and China exploit for geographical and political achievements.

The crisis unfolding on the Ukraine-Russia border or facing Taiwan is difficult to unify due to the weakness of Western leaders, and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration stands almost alone against two nuclear powers.

The shame of Western leaders’ silence is even more severe regarding antisemitic expressions that surged in France, and somehow it seems that the wave of French Jewish emigration passed under the radar. The leadership weakness that succumbs to growing violence across the continent is evident, as the authorities’ role is to protect residents, not to sweep social problems under the carpet of silence.

But the appeasement journey of local leaders to violent communities and their leaders incentivizes global money networks seeking to destroy the West from within. Strong leadership would stand with women’s organizations and act to help and support Israeli women who experienced sexual abuse and war crimes. Strong leadership stands with Israel in the face of Hamas’ terror attack in October 2023 and forms an international coalition fighting radical Islam, understanding that at any moment hundreds of thousands of radical Muslims can be mobilized on European streets to carry out a global intifada.

I estimate that mass murder of Jews may occur again, outside of Israel. Through media networks, in a matter of hours, masses of incited Muslims and antisemites, and radical Right and Left, could join a particularly diabolical plan. Strong leadership would not allow the prosecution of Israel’s Prime Minister and pursue former Defense Minister Yoav Galant in international courts. Strong leadership in Europe would take a tough stance against Qatar and Turkey, which host Hamas leaders and other radical Muslim terrorist organizations.

Leaders with high morals regarding citizen freedom would provide weapons, ammunition, and support to Israel in the war against Iran, led by a fanatical regime aimed at expanding radical Islam’s grip on the world. Strong leadership would protect the country’s residents who suffer hell on earth.

But Western leaders like those in Britain, Canada, and France choose to support the violent side out of some appeasement that will benefit them politically. Only about 24 months have passed since the genocide that occurred in Israel, and the threats against Israel to impose harsh sanctions aimed at weakening Israel and appeasing Muslims in Europe prove once again above all that Europeans choose meaningless lives as long as they stick to hedonistic deception, like “a man can be a woman” or that if people eat fewer dairy products, the Earth will be saved from destruction.

However, these steps are irresponsible because there’s some perception that people perceived as liberals have a protective wall from criticism about the results of decisions that created the crises.

The decision to impose sanctions on Israel and accuse it of genocide based on newspaper photos later exposed as staged Hamas propaganda marks a moral collapse in the West. Across Europe, Israeli tourists are being hunted and harassed while governments look away — even as Israel, since the day Hamas invaded it, has supplied Gaza with food, water, electricity, fuel, and medicine. There are but a few times in history where an army has sustained its enemy’s civilians in the midst of war.

And yet, Jews are persecuted, Israelis flee arrests, and Jewish communities across Europe in 2025 live in ghettos of fear. Israel has become the world’s leper — sacrificed once again on the altar of appeasement.

The State of Israel was founded to ensure the survival and sovereignty of the Jewish People. The Zionist leaders of the early 20th century understood a truth that remains unchanged: The world does not transform simply because it drapes itself in the language of liberalism.

Nations are driven not by virtue but by interest — and the Jewish People, as a nation, must once again seize their own destiny rather than entrust it to the shifting sympathies of others. The West now faces a choice: a stable Middle East anchored by a strong, flourishing Jewish state, or a Middle East in flames, whose shockwaves will inevitably crash upon Europe’s shores.

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