Shift to the centre could help lefty voices in the diaspora

It's tough out there for a left-wing Zionist. You can scarcely enter a student union without tripping over lefty Jews, but those of us who identify at all with Israel have to keep very quiet about it. I've lost count of the number of times I've heard Zionism wildly equated with racism, apartheid, Nazism and the perpetuation of all world evils.

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Out Jewing even the noble Lord

On Desert Island Discs last week the castaway rejected the New Testament and asked for just the Torah. Hatikvah was her favourite record. She also took the theme song from the film Exodus. The castaway wasn't a Berkowitz from Stamford Hill but Julie Burchill, Britain's most provocative newspaper columnist, non-Jewish , originally from Bristol.

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Facing uncomfortable truths

In a recent Al-Jazeerah interview, Richard Dawkins was asked his views on God. He argued that the god of "the Old Testament" is "hideous" and "a monster", and reiterated his claim from The God Delusion that the God of the Torah is the most unpleasant character "in fiction".

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Never forget Saddam’s crimes

Which people today has the most similarity with the modern Jewish story of marginalisation, demonisation, persecution, genocide, redemption and revival?

The answer is unexpected. It is a Muslim nation in the Middle East: Kurdistan.

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Ritual focus risks losing the big picture

A couple of years ago I was having dinner with one of my closest friends, who has since passed away. She was not, strictly speaking, ritually observant although she was an extraordinarily charitable person and deeply concerned with the welfare of others. It was the last serious conversation we had - which might be why it remains etched in my mind.

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We must rethink how we approach Shoah memory

The opening years of the 21st century have graphically illustrated a distressing paradox regarding the memory of the Shoah. Never has the memorialisation of the Holocaust been so omnipresent in Western culture, through countless commemorative events, university courses, literature, films, educational projects, official acknowledgements at a governmental level or inter-faith dialogue.

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Antisemitism: in the eye of the beholder

Most weeks, a quick read of the JC will show the extent to which perceptions dominate the debate about contemporary antisemitism. These perceptions arise on a personal or a communal basis; and may arise from any combination of emotive, philosophical or political drivers.

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After the offence, maybe ‘sorry’ is just another word

Elton John got it wrong. Sorry isn’t the hardest word at all.

Last week, amid calls for the EU finally to ban Hizbollah — those cuddly terrorists who thought it would be fun to bomb Israeli holidaymakers last July — one Financial Times hack wasn’t convinced.

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Put the Anglo in Anglo-Jewish

A generation ago, I was deeply opposed to Jewish schools. I didn’t send any of my children to them because I believed they could not possibly live in a world where their neighbours were not Jewish but where they never met a gentile in the classroom.

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Prayer that makes past present

Last year, I took part in a remarkable ceremony at the Rose Garden in Oxford, beneath which lies the medieval Jewish cemetery, abandoned in 1290 when the entire Jewish community of England was abruptly expelled by Edward I. We had gathered to unveil a plaque to commemorate the site and recite Kaddish for those buried there.

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