News


Israel’s would-be voice of sanity

For Jewish News Feb 10 2021 The Yesh Atid (There Is A Future) party leader, Yair Lapid, has said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 speech to Congress “was a huge mistake”. The consequence, he said, was “that the Obama administration negotiated an Iran deal without Israel at the table. After that speech, they were not […]

  • 11 February, 2021

Leora, queen of the jabs

Leora Harverd for JN Jan 12 2021 by Jenni Frazer Dr Leora Harverd’s day currently begins any time from 6 am — if she is woken up by her surgery’s practice nurse, telling her a new batch of anti-Covid vaccines has arrived — and continues until vaccinations cease at 4pm, before returning to her other […]

  • 13 January, 2021

The Polish consul who dubbed Jews Catholics — to save them

For the JC December 18 2020 An extraordinary story of Polish wartime rescue of Jews has emerged thanks to detective work by the country’s new ambassador in Turkey, Jakub Kumoch, and a Holocaust memoir written by a woman who benefited from the heroic work of the Polish consul at the time, Wojciech Rychlewicz. The consul […]

  • 18 December, 2020

Mad missionaries or doctored videos? You choose

For Jewish News Dec 16 2020 A major row has erupted in Israel over whether or not the Jewish Agency is allowing missionary activity in its Galilee education facility, Bikat Kinarot. The Agency strenuously denies the charges, made by the Beynenu anti-missionary group — but at the same time, it is conducting an inquiry, and […]

  • 16 December, 2020

Practical outcome of Abraham Accords

For Jewish News Nov 2020 A remarkable picture of how the newly-signed Abraham Accords — between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Israel and Bahrain — are working in practice, emerged at a ground-breaking webinar on Wednesday, convened by the Anglo-Israel Association. For the first time, the ambassadors of the three countries in Britain, […]

  • 1 December, 2020

Starmer mulls letting people back into Labour

For the JN Nov 29 2020 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will look at the possibility of readmitting people to the party, who campaigned for other parties after leaving because of antisemitism. In a packed keynote session at the JLM conference on Sunday, more than 630 people heard Sir Keir tell an […]

  • 1 December, 2020

Biden will keep embassy in Jerusalem

For the JN Nov 29 2020 The executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, Halie Soifer, told a Jewish Labour Movement audience on Sunday that president-elect Joe Biden would not move the American Embassy back to Tel Aviv from its new home in Jerusalem — “which we recognise as the capital of Israel”. […]

  • 1 December, 2020

Miliband at Jewish Labour Movement conference

For the JN Nov 29 2020 Former Foreign Secretary David Miliband has admitted that watching the situation in the Labour Party today was “frustrating”, mixed with “admiration for those fighting an incredibly good fight”. Speaking to an audience of more than 300 at the Jewish Labour Movement’s one-day conference, Mr Miliband, who is now chief […]

  • 1 December, 2020

Marmite man

For the JC December 2020 He might easily be described as the Marmite of the Jewish world: a communal gadfly who has garnered love and hate in almost equal parts, and almost certainly the only one ever to attract a multi-million dollar lawsuit from a global Jewish body (the World Jewish Congress). Now the writer […]

  • 1 December, 2020

Now this is what we call a 100th birthday

For the JC Nov 2020 Most 100-year-olds are likely to celebrate their milestone birthday with a cup of tea or — occasionally — a drink of whisky. But — thanks to two of his children — the former head of air operations of Israel’s nascent air force, Harold “Smoky” Simon, took to the skies. South […]

  • 1 December, 2020