Good journalists are endlessly curious and should be endlessly enthusiastic. My features run the gamut from politics to travel writing. They all have one thing in common – to transmit that enthusiasm to the reader.
Book review for the Jewish Chronicle posted April 17 2019 In some ways, I have to admire Israeli Nir Hezroni — or his agent. To have persuaded a publisher to destroy trees for his new book Last Instructions Point Blank, £8.99 (translated by Steven Cohen), and his previous outing, Three Envelopes, takes chutzpah of an […]
For the Jewish News April 19 2019 Most people, after a debilitating stroke, would be concentrating hard on looking after themselves and recovering as best they can. But Cheryl Sklan, a busy professional — she was a social worker, a psychotherapist and a life coach — is not most people. She had a massive stroke […]
Jews and money for Times of Israel by Jenni Frazer March 19 2019 If ever there were two toxic words to put together, it would be “Jews” and “money”. Yet — joined by a third word, “myth”, the tortured and tangled relationship between the two is examined by London’s Jewish Museum in a fearless exhibition […]
For Hadassah Magazine March 2019 British politician Ruth Smeeth is a gutsy campaigner, not prone to emotional breakdowns. Yet the 39-year-old Jewish parliamentarian was in tears when she left a news conference unveiling a 2016 report on anti-Semitism in her own Labour Party. Why? Because while a fellow party member shouted abusive remarks at her—accusing […]
For the JC March 1 2019 Franz West is the Austrian artist with whom we are least familiar — and perhaps the least comfortable. His art, huge ungainly installations, often destined to squat outside or to be climbed over by joyously squealing children, has a Marmite effect. So much of West’s output is deliberately designed […]
The Last Survivors by Jenni Frazer for JN Jan 14 2019 The faces loom at the viewer out of the dark, captured in almost too much detail, the experiences of a lifetime etched on their skin. Some of the faces are familiar, some could be any senior citizen. But they are not just any senior […]
For the Jewish Chronicle December 7 2018 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must have thought it was his lucky day. Fresh from yet another difficult encounter with Israeli police, and juggling a rocky coalition with several ministerial portfolios, the Israeli Prime Minister was entitled to be on his guard as he faced us, a group of […]
For the Jewish Chronicle December 14 2018 It is the year 2028 and you have a court case coming up, trying to prove negligence on the part of … a robot. This is not the stuff of science fiction, but an increasingly likely scenario in a world in which artificial intelligence, or AI, will affect […]
Back to Berlin for JN Nov 2018 from Jenni Frazer Broadcaster and film-maker Catherine Lurie knows a good story when she sees one. Six years ago, as someone with a long association with the World Maccabi movement, she was asked to be a broadcaster for the Maccabi Games of 2013, which were to be held […]
Episode 1 If there is an overriding impression to take away from John le Carre’s epic thriller The Little Drummer Girl, it is the dismal whiff of cigarettes and failure. The Le Carre novel, published in 1983, was set in 1979. And anyone who lived through the 70s will remember the decade for one thing — it […]