The JC - Jewish News, Comment & Culture

ISRAEL AT WAR

Iran’s war across Europe –complacency must finally end

The diplomatic leverage that once gave the Islamic Republic reason to calibrate – to keep its plots below the threshold of open confrontation – no longer applies

6 min read

IRGC parade in Tehran on January 10, 2025. (Image: Getty)

Watch: IDF releases bodycam footage of Lebanon operation

Defence Minister Israel Katz suggested that Israel could occupy Lebanese territory if its government does not address the threat posed by Hezbollah

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

A still from IDF bodycam footage capturing operations in southern Lebanon (IDF)

By Marnie Riches

No Jews, no news: why the glitterati ignored Iran’s slaughtered protesters

Of course they’d keep shtum! And given their reverence for Hamas’ “resistance” efforts, they were hardly going to celebrate when Hamas’ paymaster was killed

3 min read

An Iranian woman in Ontario, Canada, lights her cigarette with a flaming picture of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on January 8, 2026 (Image: Getty)

Lord Blunkett looks back to lessons after 9/11 in calling for clampdown on Iran influence in UK

Former Home Secretary urges Britain to overcome “historical reluctance” to confront extremism

By Jane Prinsley

4 min read

David Blunkett delivers a speech in 2011 (Getty Images)

Claudia Winkleman

Will Claudia Winkleman be our new chat show queen?

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

King's College London

King’s College London opens probe after keffiyeh-clad student posts ‘antisemitic’ video targeting professors

By Daniel Ben-David

2 min read

Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, pictured after an assailant drove a vehicle into the building (Photo: Getty)

USA

Michigan Jews will continue to live ‘vibrant Jewish lives’ as synagogue attacker identified

Ayman Ghazali, 41, had been living in the US since 2016

By Jamie Shapiro

3 min read

Exterior view of the Peace Palace, home to the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands (Getty Images)

Israel

Iceland and the Netherlands join South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Croatia

Sa’ar brands Croatian president’s ‘Israeli infections’ jibe ‘hate-filled’ rhetoric

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

Norway

Manhunt under way in Norway after suspects flee police stop-and-search near shul

By JC Reporter

1 min read

A useful handbook on the Israel-Palestine deadlock...until it turns to Netanyahu

Yentl review: ‘Isaac Bashevis Singer would be pleased’ ★★★★

The Yentl I play does not identify as male or female

The REAL difference between Orthodox and Progressive Jews? Whisky

Fight to preserve yeshivah status quo could go to the courts

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USA

Gunman who attacked Michigan shul is dead – no reported injuries to worshippers

Assailant drove through the doors of the shul with a vehicle before being shot

By JC Reporter

1 min read

Screenshot from a video of the shul as it surrounded by emergency vehicles (Image: Fox News)

Iran

US destroys Iranian ‘minelayers’ in Strait of Hormuz amid oil price surge

Tehran has vowed to blockade the vital trade route, but the White House has said it will ensure a ‘free flow of energy’ from the region

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

A US drone approaches an Iranian naval vessel in the Strait of Hormuz (Centcom)

Donald Trump

The Jewish immigrant story behind the dress shoes Trump has made White House uniform

Florsheim Shoes was founded in 1892 by Milton Florsheim, the son of a Jewish immigrant cobbler

By Alma Green

2 min read

If the shoe fits: Donald Trump with members of his cabinet (Photo: Getty)

Iran

Trump and Netanyahu will make ‘mutual decision’ on when to end Iran War

‘We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel,’ said the US president

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

US President Trump holds a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club on December 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Florida (Getty Images)

World news

HIAS+JCORE

‘We know what it means when doors are closed’ say rabbinic leaders at Refugee Shabbat launch

By Ben Conway

4 min read

France

Killer of Sarah Halimi arrested over violent robbery

By Shirli Sitbon

1 min read

India

The Indian princess who rescued Jews from the Holocaust

By Mark Wood

2 min read

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar speaks during a press conference at the UN Headquarters in New York, on February 18, 2026 (Getty Images)

Iran

Iranians need ‘external assistance’ to topple regime, says Sa’ar

By Jacob Jaffa

2 min read

Iran

UN Security Council calls on Iran to halt strikes against Gulf states

By Jacob Jaffa

2 min read

Iran

Ordinary Iranians give cautious welcome to speech by Benjamin Netanyahu urging them to rise up

By Ali Hamedani

3 min read

Israel

Revealed: Second World War prophecy of British general who helped forge the IDF

Donation of Orde Wingate archive documents to National Library of Israel unearths historic thoughts of influential Christian Zionist

By Jenni Frazer

3 min read

Suspected gunmen with explosives arrested close to Oslo Synagogue Meet Sheina Vaspi – the first and only Israeli athlete to compete at the Winter Paralympics

UK News

Sanctions

Impose Russia-style sanctions on Iran to stop UK being haven for ‘blood money’, government urged

Call to widen measures against Islamic Republic comes after new Supreme Leader revealed to hold £100m London property empire

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

Mojtaba Khamenei (centre), new Supreme Leader after death of his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Rouzbeh Fouladi / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Metropolitan Police

Met to ‘bolster’ police presence in Jewish areas on Al Quds Day

The force banned the annual march after receiving permission from the Home Office, but it is set to go ahead as a static demonstration

By Jane Prinsley

2 min read

A member of the Metropolitan Police patrols Oxford Street on October 02, 2025 in London, England (Getty Images)

Courts

Man convicted of punching a barrister in antisemitic attack

Nathaniel Bor was standing with a friend in public when a man approached and asked if he was Jewish, before assaulting him when he said replied

By Daniel Ben-David

1 min read

Exterior view of Willesden Magistrates Court (Getty Images)

Tim Davie

Tim Davie denies BBC Gaza bias and says he is ‘very proud’ of its record

The outgoing director general said the corporation has learnt lessons after ‘unacceptable and upsetting’ Glastonbury broadcast with ‘some heavy heart’

By Jane Prinsley

3 min read

Tim Davie on The Rest is Entertainment podcast (YouTube/TheRestIsEntertainment)

Opinion

For Democrats, attacking Israel is a career move

California Governor Newsom has clearly concluded that moving left on the Jewish state is crucial for winning his party’s base – and he’s not alone

By Melissa Langsam Braunstein

3 min read

California Governor Gavin Newsom (Image: X)

By Maureen Lipman

He sat there, staring into space, worrying about his brothers in arms

‘Sometimes,’ our soldier wryly remarked, ‘the solution comes to you before the problem.’ So, you might say Esther, the solution, was already there before the problem evolved

4 min read

By Melanie Phillips

Krav Maga for the Jewish mind: how to confront antisemitism

My new book offers tools to fight back against the hate – and, more importantly, the confidence that people can do so

3 min read

By Pouria Hadjibagheri

Iranians hope for freedom – while UK activists mourn the tyrant who crushed it

Israel and the US deserve gratitude for an operation many thought impossible against a regime that is oppressive at home and destabilising abroad

4 min read

By Jonathan Spyer

Why the Islamic Republic may survive this campaign

What could change this picture is a joint US-Israeli long-war strategy to bring down the Iranian regime by supporting both armed and civilian opposition on the ground

3 min read

By Najwa AlSaeed

Amid Iran’s missile barrage, UAE emerges as pillar of new Middle East order

Western and Israeli strategists need to realise that the myth of a monolithic “Sunni bloc” opposing Tehran never matched reality. After this war, it is positively dangerous to believe in it

6 min read

By The JC

Letters to the Editor, March 13 2026

Intermarriage, conversion, football and Palestine

4 min read

Life

At home with the Kallins

By Elisa Bray

3 min read

It was meant to be: the Lobells on their wedding day

Conversion

My journey from non-Jewish atheist to Orthodox Jew

A Californian journalist on how she went from depressed and lonely teen to happy sheitel-wearing wife and mother – and how her husband accompanied her

By Hilary Freeman

6 min read

Books