Can't pay, won't pay: the next generation of synagogue-goers

So severe is the crisis in Greece that donations to the Jewish community and payments towards synagogue fees have reportedly fallen by a half. No one imagines that things could get quite so bad in Britain, no matter how bleak the economic weather.

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Anglo-Jewry’s leaders must act

Last month the Times of Israel carried an essay by one Shimon Cohen attacking the distinguished former leader of Australian Jewry, Isi Leibler, who is now based in Israel. In March Leibler - a onetime senior vice-president of the World Jewish Congress - had launched a blistering critique of the current leadership of British Jewry.

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A French-Greek wake-up call

The recent elections here and in Europe have left Jews and all who care about freedom and democracy with many reasons for unease.

In Greece, around two thirds of those who voted did so for extremist parties of left and right. Chillingly, the neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn"party won no fewer than 21 seats.

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OK, Corbyn, let's have an inquiry

In the wake of the Raed Salah fiasco a member of the British parliament made an outrageous intervention, about which every British Jew ought to feel thoroughly alarmed.

Salah was accused by the Home Secretary of being an antisemitic, Israeli Arab rabble-rouser who used his oratorical powers to defame both the Jewish state and the Jewish people.

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United by Galloway and Le Pen

On the night David Cameron entered 10 Downing Street, I wrote about the deal he had done with the Liberal Democrats. It seemed to be a significant moment in the development of the centre-right, postponing the day when Labour could annex the entire Lib Dem support.

That now looks correct in retrospect. Correct, but incomplete.

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Don’t swallow Globe arty jokes

What is the connection between the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, the BBC Proms and the Globe Theatre? I know that they are all in London, but the association I have in mind is a little more subtle than that.

Next month, Israel's Habima theatre company will, by invitation from the Globe Theatre Trust, be giving at the Globe two performances in Hebrew of The Merchant of Venice.

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Pollard the spy is no Zionist hero

Early this month, Israeli President Shimon Peres sent a personal missive to Barack Obama, asking for clemency for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. The very next day, Obama rejected the plea, practically by return mail.

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Black hats and Jewish babies

The statistical report published earlier this month by the Board of Deputies makes for interesting reading. The number of funerals carried out in 2010 under the auspices of any Anglo-Jewish religious authority fell again, thus confirming the trend of the past two decades.

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The upside to Galloway’s win

On the morrow of George Galloway's victory in Bradford West, a colleague phoned to ask me whether this was "a good thing". For a moment I wondered what was meant by this question. "Democracy," I said, "is a good thing, and if Bradford West wants a cunning, extrovert, smooth-talking, publicity-seeking maverick political operator as its MP, so be it." This response didn't satisfy my interrogator.

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Beinart is not our wicked son

You're probably exhausted. Attending, let alone hosting, two Seders will do that to a person. You've packed away the Haggadot by now and won't be in the mood for a reminder. But forgive one more mention of the Four Sons (or Four Children, for those whose Seder is a tad more right-on).

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First- class dishonours

A great many people have had their say on the decision of the officers of Leeds University JSoc to withdraw from Brooke Goldstein the invitation previously extended to her to address the society.

In all the hullabaloo that has surrounded this incident, some basic facts seem to have been lost sight of.

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Sad shrinking of Europe's Jews

I think I've told readers before that, in many ways, I barely qualify to write this column.

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Please, let's move on from the 'Ken and the Jews' dramas

The last week saw my relationship with the Jewish community in the headlines. I agree with those, including in my own party, who want to break out of the "drama" of "Ken and the Jewish community" - it's time to move on from that, onto something less headline-grabbing but more dynamic.

I understand the dismay caused when these kinds of controversies hit the headlines.

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Saving up fuel for a rainy day

We British (as opposed to we Jews) love a crisis. Which is just as well because there are two coming along at once.

You may have noticed, particularly if you live on the eastern side of the country, that the wet stuff that used to fall from the sky - I forget what it's called after all this time - has failed to do so for so long that the government has decided to ban all use of water.

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Head over heels in love and pain

What with the dancing, Jewish weddings can be bad for your health. But my wife Rachel and I didn't expect to end up in wheelchairs for our honeymoon. We are a reasonably fit couple, but married life didn't begin well in that regard.

The day started safely and conventionally.

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Leaders who lead to surrender

Readers of the Jerusalem Post have doubtless been bemused by a rumbling controversy over whether or not the Anglo-Jewish leadership comprises what Isi Leibler derided as "trembling Israelites".

Leibler suggested that both the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council were in denial over the UK's dramatic upsurge in anti-Israel feeling.

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Self-blame is a dangerous game

This month has seen the publication of two remarkably identical statements that address the elusive quest for peace between Israel and its neighbours. One has been authored by a Liberal Jew, while the other has been written by a reported adherent of Orthodoxy.

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Tragedy in Toulouse shows Jew-hatred is alive and well

Is it possible, finally, for the British establishment to get its head out of the sand and admit that 21st century hatred of Jews is real? The Jew-killer of Toulouse who allegedly took the time to film the children he shot in cold blood, claimed he did so because of Israel's policies towards Palestinians.

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We don’t want ‘equal marriage’

Last week the government launched a consultation on how the law might be changed to permit the introduction of civil marriage for same-sex relationships. From a variety of Christian clerics there has issued forth a variety of opinions for and against the proposition.

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Dr Williams is special (I think)

When I heard the news of the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, my thoughts went back to the beginning, to that day at the end of February 2003 when Dr Rowan Williams was enthroned.

I had wandered through to the features department at The Times to ask their advice about a tricky problem I had encountered, only to find that everyone was glued to the television.

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