Jennifer Lipman

Jennifer Lipman is a freelance journalist living in London, writing about current affairs, politics, culture and society. She tweets @jenlipman

Latest from Jennifer Lipman

Books

Finding the joy amid the horror of Theresienstadt

Jennifer Lipman meets the creators of Ode to Joy, a graphic novel about the concentration camp used by the Nazis for propaganda

5 min read

Patchwork of ideas and memories: collages from film-maker Sarah Gavron (left) and artist and poet Sophie Herxheimer

Time being review: intriguing deep musings on life and death

1 min read

Natural-born storyteller: Chloe Benjamin

Under Story by Chloe Benjamin review: ‘almost 100 pages too short’

1 min read

Summer 2026 reading: the hottest books

4 min read

Judy Blume’s story, told lovingly and in exhaustive detail – but without her input

This is a lovingly delivered portrait but it feels too often like a sanitised version of the writer’s life

2 min read

June 4, 2026 15:00

Himmler’s Curtains: How my survivor mother ended up living in a Nazi leader’s house

This beautifully written memoir is full of startling vignettes, but using a psuedonym in this age of disinformation and denial feels a disservice to the reader

2 min read

April 16, 2026 11:50

Pulling back the curtain: Simon Weisz (a pseudonym) and his mother c.1959

Shushu review: ‘Motherhood, warts and all, beautiful, ugly and true’

This graphic novel by a Jewish writer is a gift for a woman who is out the other side but can still see those moments in the rear window

1 min read

April 1, 2026 12:50

Shushu review: ‘Motherhood, warts and all, beautiful, ugly and true’

Sex, lies and terrorists

Ellie Levenson’s thriller is a twisty page-turner with an intriguing concept that grabs from the get-go

1 min read

February 13, 2026 12:13

If you wanted something done in Jewish Europe 300 years ago, who did you ask?

The findings of this excellent work of scholarship will likely not surprise all readers of this newspaper...

3 min read

February 4, 2026 12:46

Leading the way: Kaplan and Carlebach's new book, and Jewish women dancing at the Jews' Infant School charity ball at Willis's Rooms in London in 1872

The Jewish woman who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe

Jennifer Lipman meets the author of a new book about Zionist paratrooper and poet Hannah Senesh

6 min read

January 9, 2026 14:13

Jewish Joan of Arc: Hannah Senesh and Douglas Century with his book Crash of Heavens

2025 in review: Books

Our critics’ stand-out Jewish books of the year include eviscerating fiction, assiduously researched history, memoirs and reflections on the lives of poets

7 min read

December 24, 2025 12:47

The Lobbyist review: A fun yarn of bribery, corruption and bonkfests galore

Lionel Zetter’s novel captures the rapacious spirit of Britain’s political centre

1 min read

November 20, 2025 16:06

The Lobbyist review: A fun yarn of bribery, corruption and bonkfests galore

I Wanted to be Wonderful review: The trials and tribulations of motherhood laid bare

This novel by Lihi Lapid follows two parallel stories to weave a heart-rending portrait of marriage and domesticity

1 min read

October 21, 2025 12:41

I Wanted to be Wonderful review: The trials and tribulations of motherhood laid bare

Rooms for Vanishing review: ‘bogged down by its ambitious concept’

The prose is beautiful, but this novel about how the Holocaust has shaped our modern lives is sometimes so hard to follow in a linear fashion, it becomes bewildering

2 min read

August 21, 2025 18:22

Rooms for Vanishing review: ‘bogged down by its ambitious concept’

Summer 2025 reading: the hottest books

You don’t need to be going abroad to be transported to distant shores with our pick of the summer’s best holiday reads. From courtroom dramas to wartime love stories, Jennifer Lipman has you covered.

4 min read

July 25, 2025 11:16