A good hour's scandalous end?

Within the next few weeks the BBC, which is funded by British taxpayers through revenues derived from the television licence fee, will take a decision directly affecting the lives of, if not all British Jews, then certainly those living in the North-West.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Shocking and false slur on Bibi

In last week's Independent Dr Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of international relations at the university of Oxford, unburdened himself of his views on Benjamin Netanyahu and the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

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JLC's sinister march to power

Last month, the Board of Deputies witnessed a blistering attack upon the Jewish Leadership Council by none other than the Board's own senior vice-president, Jonathan Arkush.

The deputies had been considering the circumstances in which a communal initiative to meet the Prime Minister had been hijacked by the JLC, whose spokespersons far outnumbered those of the Board.

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Ken is only ever on his own side

I've spent a lifetime studying politicians. I remain fascinated by the way in which those who practise the political arts are able to justify the unjustifiable, and in so doing can appear to turn hypocrisy into a virtue. The deeds and misdeeds of the political classes long ago ceased to shock me.

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Wrong to shred Fred's Honour

I am not an economist. I do not know whether the current crisis from which this country is suffering really is the fault of the banking fraternity rather than (as some of my economist friends insist) an inevitable phase of an equally predictable economic "cycle".

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Why is Gove so partial to CST?

At first glance, the recent spat between the Guardian and the Community Security Trust seems just a storm in a teacup. At the end of January, the Guardian's Rob Evans ran a poorly researched story about Education Secretary Michael Gove, who has for several years been a member of the CST's advisory board.

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