The JC - Jewish News, Comment & Culture

Hatzola arson attack

‘The rise of antisemitic hatred is there for all to see’, says Starmer

The PM spoke to Jewish leaders, Hatzola representatives and local MPs following the Golders Green attack

By Lorin Bell-Cross

4 min read

Sir Keir Starmer speaking at Parliament's Liaison Committee (Image: Parliament TV)

Fundraiser for new Hatzola ambulances hits £1 million

Police are investigating the incident in Golders Green as an ‘antisemitic hate crime’

By Jamie Shapiro

2 min read

Fire services monitor the scene after four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire overnight next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue, on March 23, 2026, in Golders Green (Getty Images)

Counter-terrorism police leading Hatzola arson investigation

The Met said they were aware that one group – said to be pro-Iran – had claimed responsibility for the attack

By Lorin Bell-Cross

2 min read

Aerial view after four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire overnight next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue in Golders Green, March 23, 2026 (Credit: Leon Neal/Getty Images)

What is Hatzola and who does it treat?

The volunteer-led emergency service found itself at the centre of a ‘horrific antisemitic attack’ on Monday

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

Communities Secretary Steve Reed (C) during a visit to Hatzola in Stamford Hill in 2021

Kent

‘Wild antisemitic scrawls’: Margate exhibition featuring ‘Nazi imagery’ slammed

By JC Reporter

4 min read

Samantha Ellis revels in Iraqi delicacies for the Seder

Pesach

Rice, dates and dressing up… welcome to my Iraqi seder

By Samantha Ellis

3 min read

Police officers in Amsterdam (Getty Images)

The Netherlands

Dutch police foil synagogue attack as explosive found

The planned attack in Heemstede in Western Netherlands would have been the third this month in the country

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

House of Commons

Labour MP suggests Israel closed Al-Aqsa to ‘limit freedom of worship’ – as missile lands metres away from mosque

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

Masorti

New rabbi to take the helm at South Herts and Edgware Masorti

By Alma Green

1 min read

How long will I live? How long is a piece of string?

breast cancer

Why I won’t take a test to see if my breast cancer will return

By Karen E H Skinazi

3 min read

The new Haggadah which takes us back to Egypt

What is it like to be a queer Palestinian?

Tucker Carlson calls pro-Hitler Oswald Mosley one of Britain’s ‘great war heroes’

The guide dog in Israel turning sirens into smiles

Anti-Israel student activists want universities to cut ties with ‘Zionist’ NUS

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USA

New photos reveal destruction inside Temple Israel shul after Michigan terror attack

The synagogue said it decided to release the images ‘to take back control of our narrative’

By Ben Conway

3 min read

Inside Temple Israel Synagogue after the attack (Image: Emily Elconin)

Iran

Trump distances US from Israeli strikes on Iranian gas field

The president said there would be ‘no more attacks’ on the South Pars site unless Iran launched further aggression towards Qatar

By Jacob Jaffa

2 min read

US President Trump speaks to members of the media traveling on Air Force One en route to Miami on March 7, 2026 (Getty Images)

Basketball

Israeli trio makes NBA history in Portland-Brooklyn game

The fixture featured All-Star Deni Avdija and two rookies from the Brooklyn Nets, marking the first time three Israeli athletes have shared an NBA court

By Ben Conway

3 min read

(L-R) Danny Wolf, Ben Saraf and Deni Avdija

Iran

Trump labels BBC coverage of Iran War ‘corrupt and fraudulent’

The president, who is suing the corporation over a separate complaint about its coverage of the 2020 election, called the tone of its reporting on the conflict ‘unbelievable’

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

US President Trump speaks to members of the media aboard Air Force One on March 15, 2026 (Getty Images)

World news

Iran

Iran says it has dedicated a missile to Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez

By JC Reporter

1 min read

Israel Iran War

Newlywed Thai worker who came to Israel ‘with hope to make a good life’ killed by Iranian cluster bomb

By Ben Conway

1 min read

A smoke plume rises from a fire near Dubai International Airport following an Iranian strike on March 16, 2026 (Getty Images)

UAE

UAE shuts down ‘Iran-backed terror network’ after Gulf strikes

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Prime Minister Netanyahu gives a press conference on March 19, 2026 (Getty Images)

Iran

Iran can no longer enrich uranium or produce ballistic missiles, claims Netanyahu

By Jacob Jaffa

2 min read

Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joseph Kent, December 11, 2025 (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

America

FBI investigating ex-counterterror chief Joe Kent over alleged leak

By Daniel Ben-David

2 min read

A still from the footage in the aftermath of the strike showing the Tikva offices ablaze

Russia Ukraine War

Russian suicide drone strikes Great Choral Synagogue in Odesa

By Ben Conway

2 min read

Iran

Arab states request emergency UN Human Rights Council debate on Iran’s ‘military aggression’

Qatar has already expelled some Iranian embassy staff after a strike on its largest gas production facility

By Jacob Jaffa

2 min read

Qatar declares Iranian embassy staff ‘persona non grate’ after gas facility strike All eyes on Toronto – the city whose Jewish sites have been hit at least 18 times since October 7

UK News

Hatzola ambulance attack

‘Another sickening antisemitic attack’: Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp visits scene of Hatzola arson

Philp told the JC that he wanted to see the three suspects ‘arrested and sent to prison for a very very long time’

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp (CR) and Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel (R) in Golders Green on March 23, 2026

Hatzola ambulance attack

‘Like waking in a war zone’: witnesses of the Hatzola ambulance attack describe their horror

One witness told the JC she began to cry when she heard a fourth explosion that shook her house

By Daniel Ben- David & Jane Prinsley

5 min read

Hatzola ambulances set on fire in Golders Green (Image: X)

Hatzola ambulance attack

Government to fund replacement of burned Haztola ambulances

Health Secretary West Streeting said that the Jewish community ‘should not be left footing the bill’ after Monday’s arson attack

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

Health Secretary Wes Streeting (C) delivers a statement alongside London Ambulance Service Chief Executive Jason Killens (L) and Courts Minister Sarah Sackman (R) in Golders Green on March 23, 2026, following the arson attack on four Hatzola ambulances (Sky News)

Hatzola

How you can donate to Hatzola after the Golders Green arson attack

Show your support for Hatzola and CST after last night’s incident which saw four ambulances set ablaze

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

Hatzola ambulances are for everyone (Image: Getty Images)

Opinion

The global war against the Jews

Across the world, communities face vandalism, arson, assaults, and threats. And yet, we are still here, an ancient people in a modern world, and our civilisation will endure

By Ben M. Freeman

6 min read

Aerial view of four Hatzola ambulances set on fire next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue, on March 23, 2026 in Golders Green, London (Image: Getty)

By Stephen Pollard

The Hatzola attack and the normalisation of antisemitism in Britain

What is now happening, I believe, is a sort of reversion to the mean: for centuries open Jew hate was a reality, and that is what we are now returning to

2 min read

By Lorin Bell-Cross

Drive to reclaim Gaza vote may lie behind Labour calls for Nick Timothy’s sacking

What a party source claims is a ‘manufactured row’ comes after Gorton loss and ahead of feared local election drubbing

4 min read

By Gary Cohen

The convenient fiction that hides Iran’s hand and pins chaos on Israel

A narrative that obscures what is truly fuelling war in the Middle East betrays a willingness to legitimise almost anything so long as it is directed at the Jews

6 min read

By Jake Wallis Simons

Theroux’s settler doc wins – predictably, Israelophobia pays

The BPG, a group of journalists, critics and other media insiders, was always bound to conform to the trend. Whenever Jews are upset by something, the industry rallies round and doubles down

2 min read

By Maureen Lipman

The film Yentl was, in its way, a masterpiece of kitsch and charisma

The play is a rare theatrical triumph from Australia’s Kadimah Yiddish Theatre – partly in Yiddish with subtitles – that captivates so completely I was barely breathing

4 min read

By Charlotte Henry

From Gaza to Gail’s: The Guardian’s moral collapse over a north London café

We know people hold the appalling opinions expressed in the piece. It remains staggering that a national newspaper, one that is read around the world, thought it appropriate to publish such bile

3 min read

Eggstraordinary: Paul Kutchinsky with his diamond-encrusted creation

memoir

How I cracked the mystery of my father and the biggest jewelled egg in the world

By Serena Kutchinsky

6 min read

Opera

Siegfried review: Spellbinding Schager is the greatest Siegfried of our age ★★★★★

The opera’s flawless cast, set design and music are led by Andreas Shager, who delivers one of the finest theatrical performances London has seen in many years

By Stephen Pollard

2 min read

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