[{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1tdjwf9srpo79fe9pdd","url":"https://www.thejc.com/news/usa/us-government-sanctions-palestine-action-fuika59s","path":"/news/usa/us-government-sanctions-palestine-action-fuika59s","title":"US government announces sanctions against Palestine Action","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measures would put ‘far-left extremists on notice’","bodyText":"The US government has announced sanctions against the group Palestine Action. The Department of the Treasury said it had “taken action” against the UK-based group, which it accused of supporting “numerous acts of terrorism since July 2020”. All of the group’s property in the United States or in the possession or control of American citizens has been blocked, it said. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said: “Far-left extremists, their fronts, and their enablers should be on notice: We will bring the full weight of our economic tools to bear. “Political terrorism has no place in our society, and we will continue to cut the financial lifelines of these groups until they are eliminated.” Announcing the sanctions, the Trump administration said Palestine Action has “promoted its violent, criminal, and terrorist acts on social media, encouraging the use of similar tactics internationally, including within the United States and along the US-Mexican border”. The group has been sanctioned for having “materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods and services to or in support of, an act of terrorism,” the US Treasury said. It means US nationals will be prohibited from doing any business with the group or contributing any money. Responding to the move on X, co-founder Huda Ammori said: “Trump has just designated Palestine Action a terrorist group. “As a Palestinian and Iraqi, the fact that the country which destroyed both my homelands is calling me a terrorist is beyond hypocritical. “Trump is the antithesis to everything Palestine Action stands for.” Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation last June, with MPs voting in favour by a margin of 385-26. This made it a criminal offence to be a member of the group, provide it with material support or encourage others to support it. In June, Court of Appeal judges ruled the government’s ban on the organisation was a “justified and proportionate” interference on freedom of expression rights. However, the group’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, was granted permission in July to appeal that ruling before the Supreme Court. Justices Lord Sales, Lord Leggatt and Lady Simler had given Ammori the green light to challenge the ban on the basis that then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had incorrectly applied the policy. But they refused her permission to challenge the decision based on interference with freedom of speech and freedom of association.","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1tdjvw6uwxpxcdw71df/0/bessent-jpg.webp","byline":"Getty Images","description":"US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a press conference in the Cash Room at the Treasury Department on August 24, 2026 (Getty Images)","height":2667,"id":"contentid/1tdjvw6uwxpxcdw71df","title":"Bessent.jpg","width":4000,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":"2026-08-26T15:59:09.065Z","publishedDate":"2026-08-26T15:27:43.959Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/1728g0yvzl61vnjeulx","name":"JC Reporter","bio":"","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":null,"instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":"https://twitter.com/JewishChron","url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/jc-reporter-va5nj52d","path":"/author/jc-reporter-va5nj52d"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"Press Association","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Palestine Action","url":"tag/Palestine Action","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"US Politics","url":"tag/US Politics","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"USA","path":"/news/usa","id":"contentid/section.thejc.news.usa"}},{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1tby6mswwk1ji0a8q6n","url":"https://www.thejc.com/life/film/mathieu-kassovitz-on-starring-in-de-gaulle-resistance-and-how-being-jewish-informs-his-work-qn2ws1io","path":"/life/film/mathieu-kassovitz-on-starring-in-de-gaulle-resistance-and-how-being-jewish-informs-his-work-qn2ws1io","title":"Mathieu Kassovitz on starring in De Gaulle: Résistance and how being Jewish informs his work","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"The rebel director returns to the heart of French cinema","bodyText":"Mathieu Kassovitz is back at the Cannes Film Festival – his spiritual home, you might say. Back in 1995, the French actor-director arrived, almost unknown, with La Haine. A story set in a Parisian banlieue, fizzing with issues of race, violence and police brutality, it won him the Academy Award for Best Director and turbocharged his career. Since then, in between making his own movies, he’s acted for Steven Spielberg (Munich), Michael Haneke (Happy End) and Steven Soderbergh (Haywire) among other luminaries. So does he still enjoy acting? “I never enjoy,” he shrugs. “It’s bullshit.” OK… He was at May’s festival for the world premiere of Antonin Baudry’s Second World War drama De Gaulle: Résistance, centring on the iconic French general, Charles de Gaulle, during the war years. With Simon Abkarian in the title role and Britain’s own Simon Russell Beale as a garrulous Winston Churchill, Kassovitz plays Admiral Francois Darlan, an instrumental part of the collaborationist Vichy government in France. So why, at 59, does he still act? “Because I like movies,” he replies, bluntly. “I like to be part of a good movie and to help a director to achieve his goal. I’m a director. I love directors… I don’t care about my character or about the acting.” A scene from De Gaulle: Résistance[Missing Credit] It is a typical comment from the outspoken Kassovitz, a wiry-looking, wild figure who grew up in a film-making family. His mother is film editor Chantal Rémy, his father is film producer, writer and director Peter Kassovitz, a Hungarian Jew who fled during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. At 17, he began working his way up the movie food chain, starting as a third assistant director. “I was a gopher for years,” he says. “I did a lot of jobs when I was a kid as a crew member. I was lucky enough to work on really bad movies and that pissed me off so bad… it didn’t satisfy me.” Anger seemingly fuels Kassovitz. Right now, he’s infuriated by the French film industry – making films that rarely break out. “We need big budget movies in France. We need to show that we’re competitive,” he says. “Koreans, no one speaks their language either, but they still export them and change cinema. They have ambition.” Still, Kassovitz concedes, there have been attempts to buck this trend. Following recent lavish adaptations of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, De Gaulle: Résistance is the first of a two-part movie (the second, Liberté, is due next month). It’s one of the most expensive French film projects ever made, with the two movies costing an estimated $80 million (£60 million) combined. “It’s a war movie, so it cannot be done without money. But if you think about it, it’s $80 million for two movies. Paul [Thomas] Anderson did a guy running around in a robe in Los Angeles for 130.” He’s referring to Anderson’s tale of revolutionaries, One Battle After Another, which starred a robe-wearing Leonardo DiCaprio and won six Oscars, including Best Picture, earlier this year. To say he’s not a fan is an understatement. “130 million dollars? I’m so pissed at One Battle After Another. How can you look at yourself in America? I’m doing an anarchist, revolutionary movie in the world that we’re living in right now. And we have an actor who takes 30 million dollars for basically running around in LA!” Rant over. As the grandson of Hungarian Holocaust survivors and son of a Jewish refugee father, it is perhaps inevitable that Kassovitz would become drawn to a Second World War project. And not for the first time: his father previously directed the 1999 Holocaust drama Jakob the Liar, in which he took a small role alongside star Robin Williams. He also narrated Apocalypse: The Second World War, a critically acclaimed 2009 six-part French documentary miniseries about the conflict – a project that brought home to him just how present the war remains. “It didn’t happen 200 years ago. We are talking about our grandparents’ generation, not our ancestors’,” he notes. Thanks to his work on the documentary, Kassovitz was aware of Darlan (“I’m history curious,” he chuckles), although he admits when the director first came to him, he fudged it. “When he asked me to do the part, I said, ‘Yeah, of course, I know the character.’ And then I went on Wikipedia.” While the film also features French Resistance hero Jean Moulin, Kassovitz was most fascinated by De Gaulle, whose wartime efforts – very much against his government’s attempts to appease Germany – remain relatively untouched by cinema. “Nobody made a movie about Le General de Gaulle and the decisions that he had to make,” he says. Amid a big-budget story that hops between France, England and the crucial battle of Bir Hakeim, in North Africa, he felt that the film shows the very personal side of war. Perhaps leading us all to consider how we might react. “You ask yourself the question: What would I do if I was in his shoes? And that’s what this movie is doing: it’s more of a documentary about who he was.” Previously married to French actor and costume designer Julie Mauduech, Kassovitz is a secular Jew who feels strongly about his ethnicity. He says he grew up in a “world of Jewish humour”, and even La Haine – made when he was just 27 – cast the young Vincent Cassel as Vinz, an Ashkenazi Jew. He later worked with Spielberg on Munich, which told of the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics in West Germany when Black September terrorists murdered 11 Israeli Olympic team members. He played a bombmaker who joins Mossad. He is open about being on set and how the actors – including future 007 actor Daniel Craig – waited in Malta for Spielberg, who wasn’t able to arrive until the beginning of the shoot. “Daniel was very worried…[what] if he doesn’t like us when we act?’ And I told him, ‘Tell him to go f**k himself. He should have been here.’” In the event, Craig need not have worried. “I talked to Spielberg afterwards afterwards and said. ‘You weren’t there, so were you not scared that we wouldn’t fit?’ He replied, ‘My job is to choose you. Once I choose you, I cannot do anything.’” It’s not so hard to imagine Kassovitz confronting Spielberg – or anyone else, for that matter. His is a rebellious nature. To this end, he is already sticking it to the industry by supporting the use of AI tools in cinema, developing an almost entirely AI-enabled film based on The Beast is Dead!, a 1940s wartime graphic novel by Edmond-François Calvo. An allegory in the Animal Farm mould, it depicts French rabbits against Nazi wolves, “it’s a story of two little rabbits that have to travel the whole forest of Europe to free their family,” he explains. For him, AI is a far greater tool for world-building than the industry-standard visual effects that have been used to create special effects. “I don’t like CGI [Computer Generated Imagery].That’s why I haven’t made the movie in 15 years… I don’t want to get involved with those special effects – the way it was made for the past 30 years. Unless you put a huge amount of money to make it look really good, the rest doesn’t look that good. And we get used to that. What AI will do is to level the quality of everything, put everybody on the same level.” Once a rebel, always a rebel. De Gaulle: Résistance is in cinemas on August 28. De Gaulle: Part 2 – Liberté is released on September 18","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1tdjn6ezy9njolrc331/1/lifesection-p36-jpg.webp","byline":"","description":"Maverick: French actor-director Mathieu Kassovitz","height":587,"id":"contentid/1tdjn6ezy9njolrc331","title":"LifeSection-P36.jpg","width":1045,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":null,"publishedDate":"2026-08-26T15:16:05.403Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/1728g07v5hl4gn2q572","name":"James Mottram","bio":"<p>James Mottram is a film journalist and author. He&#39;s written several books on film including The Making of Dunkirk, published in the UK by Titan</p>\n","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1728g07v5hl4gn2q572/3/image.webp","instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":"","url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/james-mottram-bxyxliwy","path":"/author/james-mottram-bxyxliwy"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Film","url":"tag/Film","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Cannes Film Festival","url":"tag/Cannes Film Festival","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"Film","path":"/life/film","id":"contentid/section.thejc.life-and-culture.film"}},{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1tbyle5lmz5gpb2d8ss","url":"https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/israel-blocks-entry-swedish-meps-false-accusations-genocide-mttrat9v","path":"/news/israel/israel-blocks-entry-swedish-meps-false-accusations-genocide-mttrat9v","title":"Israel blocks entry of Swedish MEPs over ‘false accusations’ of ‘genocide’","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"The decision comes after several British MPs were similarly denied visas, including a member of the Jewish Labour Movement","bodyText":"Israel has denied entry to two members of the European parliament from Sweden’s Left Party, Jonas Sjöstedt and Hanna Gedin, who had requested to visit the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The pair were scheduled to arrive in Israel on Sunday night but were denied their visas in a decision made at the request of Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, in accordance with the Entry into Israel Law. According to the Foreign Ministry, Sjöstedt and Gedin have “consistently acted against Israel”, including by calling for “international legal proceedings” against Israelis. On various occasions, they have accused Israel of genocide, deliberately starving Palestinians and intentionally targeting children and medical personnel, which Sa’ar labelled “false accusations”. The Entry into Israel Law has, since 2017, allowed the government to deny visas to foreign nationals who have called for boycotts against the Jewish State. It also allows ministers to bar visitors from entry if they are reasonably believed to be working against Israel’s interests. Last April, two British Labour MPs, Abtisam Mohamed and Yuan Yang, were prevented from entering Israel for a planned trip to the West Bank and were deported from Ben Gurion Airport. Then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the decision “unacceptable, counterproductive, and deeply concerning,” but an embassy spokesperson said: “These individuals had accused Israel of false claims, were actively involved in promoting sanctions against Israeli ministers, and supported campaigns aimed at boycotting the State of Israel.” Several months later, two more Labour MPs, including Dr Peter Prinsley, who is Jewish and a member of the Jewish Labour Movement, were similarly blocked, though Israel did not confirm the reason for the decision publicly.","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1tbyl0dk1o677ivyi7n/0/jonassjostedt-jpg.webp","byline":"Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images","description":"Jonas Sjöstedt during a plenary session of the European parliament in Brussels on May 21, 2025 (Getty Images)","height":2666,"id":"contentid/1tbyl0dk1o677ivyi7n","title":"JonasSjöstedt.jpg","width":4000,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":null,"publishedDate":"2026-08-24T14:36:52.062Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/1728g0yvzl61vnjeulx","name":"JC Reporter","bio":"","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":null,"instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":"https://twitter.com/JewishChron","url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/jc-reporter-va5nj52d","path":"/author/jc-reporter-va5nj52d"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"Jerusalem News Syndicate","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Israel","url":"tag/Israel","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Israeli Politics","url":"tag/Israeli Politics","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Boycotts","url":"tag/Boycotts","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"European Union","url":"tag/European Union","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Sweden","url":"tag/Sweden","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"Israel","path":"/news/israel","id":"contentid/section.thejc.news.israel"}},{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1t2g1pt5hwmw88iuro6","url":"https://www.thejc.com/life/the-trauma-experts-from-israel-helping-manchester-recover-hhix96l9","path":"/life/the-trauma-experts-from-israel-helping-manchester-recover-hhix96l9","title":"The trauma experts from Israel helping Manchester recover","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"After the Heaton Park terror attack, Israeli charity Natal was there within days","bodyText":"When Esther Calek came out of synagogue “on a high” after an uplifting Yom Kippur service in Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, the news was shocking. A devastating terror attack had hit the Jewish community of her hometown of Manchester. She says the irony struck her powerfully: “That I was feeling safe in Israel, which we’d all been regarding as the unsafe place where it’s dangerous, and my hometown was the place which was feeling very unsafe and very dangerous. It really felt from that point that the tables had been turned in a very profound way.” Two people were killed and three badly injured before in the attack on Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation on October 2, when Syrian-born British citizen Jihad al-Shamie rammed the gates of the synagogue with his car before assaulting congregants with a knife. Miraculously, only five people had been physically impacted, in the following days and months the emotional reverberations of the attack rippled through the 30,000-strong Jewish community of the North West, as the reality of what had happened sunk in. Everybody felt affected. A counsellor and psychotherapist, Calek was quick to notice the change of atmosphere when she got home. “That sense of danger within our DNA hasn’t left us since the Holocaust,” she says, “it doesn’t take much to bring it to the surface and reawaken.” Calek felt there was a new “hyper awareness” of risk, and that people had become constantly vigilant. But something else was afoot. Behind the scenes, mental health professionals were gearing themselves up to respond to that sense of devastation that was impacting not just survivors, but friends, family and the wider community. Within a matter of days, a team of trauma experts from Israel, trained to deal with the emotional fallout from terrorist attacks and armed conflict, had arrived in Manchester to start rolling out workshops to share their expertise. As a nation, Israel excels in many scientific fields, but one area of specialism has developed for the very worst of reasons. The country is a world leader in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For 28 years Natal – an apolitical non-profit organisation – has provided psychological support to people impacted by war and terror, regardless of faith, ethnicity or political affiliation. The charity was founded by Jude Yovel Recanati who, like many Israelis of her generation, was deeply affected by the Yom Kippur War of 1973. She lost friends and classmates and observed many people struggling with the physical and emotional impact of war. Ahead of her time, Yovel Recanati saw the need to expand the available options of treatment for people suffering from PTSD. In 1998 she founded Natal – an acronym for the Hebrew translation of “Israel Trauma Centre for Victims of Terror and War”. One of her first moves was to adapt her late parents’ home in Tel Aviv into the Natal national centre. Starting with psychological first responders and a 24- hour helpline, and moving on to longer-term strategies such as group and individual therapy, Natal has developed clinical expertise and an understanding of what they call “the ecology of trauma and resilience”. Caroline Ratner CEO of UK Friends of Natal, explains: “They do a lot of community projects, a lot of physical stuff, which is very important because trauma is something you hold in your body. There’s a running group called ‘Running with Rami’, there’s a surfing group called HaGal Sheli (‘My Wave’), there’s trauma-informed yoga.” They also offer a raft of artistic and creative therapies including theatre and resilience retreats. “Since October 7, the demand for their services has grown exponentially. The phones started ringing at 6.30 on that morning and haven’t stopped,” Ratner says, explaining that Natal increasingly exports its expertise worldwide: “They work with people all over the world because it is very niche. Trauma from the war on terror is different. It’s very specialist. They work with a pastor in Chicago who approached them to help with the gang situation in the city, because that’s trauma from terror and war in a way, and they’re working in Australia too.” As for their work in the UK, she explains: “There’s obviously a lot of demand for what we do in the UK, because the trauma of antisemitism is combined with what we’ve all been struggling with since October 7.” She adds that the shocking events in Israel brought professional challenges to everyone working in mental health in the UK Jewish community: “We are navigating a different reality.” UK Friends of Natal works in partnership with UJIA (United Joint Israel Appeal), which fosters the connection between diaspora Jews and Israel. Anat Caspi Kaivanto, who runs the charity’s Manchester and North West operation, says: “We were able to fly an amazing team over within a week to lead a training session with Jahm, the Manchester Jewish mental health charity.” The Natal team provided one training for 25 therapists, including Calek, and another course for 25 key members of the community, including rabbis and leaders from Jewish and non-Jewish schools such as Cheadle Hulme and Manchester Grammar School, which have a lot of Jewish pupils. Calek says the workshop she attended focused on running group intervention after trauma. “They were so warm. One of them put her arm around me and said: ‘l really feel for you all here in the UK,” she recalls. “It was such a profound moment.” The sense of reversal kicked in again, Calek says: “It took me a few minutes to absorb that. I thought: we’re the victims here, and they are feeling sorry for us. It was a real turning point.” Ratner and Caspi Kaivanto have also noticed the feeling of reversal too. Until recently, they say, the UK Friends of Natal and UJIA existed primarily to support Israel and to educate people about the country – no thought had been given to how the UK could benefit from Natal’s expertise. That changed after October 7, and even more profoundly after the Heaton Park attack. “All of a sudden, Israel picks up the phone to us and says: well, now it’s our turn to pay back and to come and support you,” says Caspi Kaivanto. “UJIA has fundraised about more than £8 million for Israel since October 7. And after the terrorist attack in Heaton Park, they said, well actually we think you need a bit of help too now.” For Manchester, it is still early days. The trauma team returned recently to repeat the workshops, and there have been remote video-call training sessions too. The collaboration has been so successful though, that it’s led to a conference focusing on “shared traumatic reality” – what happens clinically and personally when practitioner and patient are navigating the same crisis. The event will take place in central London in September. For Ratner, the important message is that the after effects of trauma aren’t all negative. “One of the biggest tenets of Natal is post-traumatic growth. It’s all about building resilience,” she says. “You’re always going to have trauma, that trauma is never going away, but you learn how to deal with it, manage it, and grow from it. That’s really important. You can’t let the trauma define you.”","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1tbtib8w9zonsghsscl/1/19aug26-life-p39-jpg.webp","byline":"","description":"Reaching out: UJIA's Anat Caspi Kaivanto; a group therapy session; Caroline Ratner, CEO of UK Friends of Natal; counsellor and psychotherapist Esther Calek","height":587,"id":"contentid/1tbtib8w9zonsghsscl","title":"19Aug26-Life-p39.jpg","width":1045,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":"2026-08-24T13:46:43.141Z","publishedDate":"2026-08-24T11:50:44.255Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/1728fwdl3m15hgbocua","name":"Gaby Koppel","bio":"<p>Gaby Koppel is an author and former BBC television producer.</p>","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1728fwdl3m15hgbocua/2/image.webp","instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":"","url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/gaby-koppel-u8ddj5hx","path":"/author/gaby-koppel-u8ddj5hx"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Health","url":"tag/Health","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"trauma","url":"tag/trauma","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Israel","url":"tag/Israel","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Heaton park synagogue attack","url":"tag/Heaton park synagogue attack","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Manchester Jews","url":"tag/Manchester Jews","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Manchester","url":"tag/Manchester","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"Life","path":"/life","id":"contentid/section.thejc.life-and-culture"}},{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1t2ia5dnj3yd44q3aya","url":"https://www.thejc.com/life/farcical-jewish-family-feud-that-went-too-far-veu4uv9h","path":"/life/farcical-jewish-family-feud-that-went-too-far-veu4uv9h","title":"Farcical Jewish family feud that went too far","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"You want broiges? One of the accusations was that we stole 23 jars of cucumbers","bodyText":"Wise are those who say “don’t air your dirty laundry in public”. And even wiser are those who actually manage to abide by this common-sense advice. Alas, I am far too fascinated by a recent experience to restrain myself from spilling my metaphorical tea all over you... I have an extensive family that includes some relatives whom, I am sure, even the neurotic king of eccentricity himself, Woody Allen, would consider quirky. And years ago, I had a bit of a falling out with a couple of these idiosyncratic relatives. Like most longstanding broiges, it was triggered by a very trivial matter: a little unintentional thoughtlessness on my part, a big perceived snub on their part, and suddenly nobody’s talking for 20 years. Then, out of the blue, one of those relatives contacted me asking for help. I was thrilled. A second chance! I’d been feeling sad about the feud since for ever, and was overjoyed that now not only did we get to make up and be part of one another’s lives again, but (to be completely honest) I would get to be the “good girl”, the “saviour”, and any potential past slights on my part would be totally absolved. Ah yes. Another old saying that is equally pithy. How unfortunate I didn’t remember this over the next few weeks when I regularly, literally, jumped into my little car and raced over to this relative to try and help them. My sister became involved too. We paid for things that were needed and gave up days and evenings trying to help our mishpocha. We were both so keen to rekindle our relationship and do the right thing. Sadly, as unexpected as the reaching out to us had been, after a few weeks our relative turned on us once more. My sister and I abruptly became the enemy. We did our best to persuade them of our genuine love and devotion to them; we begged, pleaded and implored. All to no avail. We had been utterly villainised. Eventually we gave up. And so, despite our best efforts, the family feud was resumed. A few weeks after our last meeting with our now re-estranged relative, an official letter arrived at my house and completely astonished me. It was from a rabbinical court. Myself, my sister and our poor old dad were all being summoned. The date and time for the hearing was to be set “in due course”. You could say we were experiencing a “religious calling” of sorts. The specific accusations were wild. We had (allegedly) stolen incredible amounts of money, gold, and mysterious “other things” that apparently included bags of old clothes and 23 jars of pickles. Yes, pickles. We were accused of pickle-nicking on an industrial scale. Once over the initial incredulity, we began to see the hilarity. At first we scoffed at the idea that we would actually go to the hearing – but then I started to think that it might actually be a fun and interesting experience. My mind immediately went sartorial. What would I wear? A fascinator, obviously, I rarely go to a formal function without one. This occasion surely merited one with a little black veil. A modest black suit too, high heels (with some pumps in my bag for when the pain got too much) and a smart white shirt. Were any of my shirts modest enough? No. So should I buy a new one? Yes. And then how should we address the presiding rabbi? Your honour? Your Orthodoxness? Your Rabbiship? My Mosesship? It was all exciting and unfamiliar territory for us, defending the family’s reputation in a rabbinical court. I began to really look forward to the trial, already playing out the drama in my head like it was a viral streaming sensation. A week or so later another letter arrived with the date and time of the hearing but, to our surprise, along with the court details there was also a demand that we pay £500 for the privilege of attending the trial. Five hundred pounds! Payable by either cash, bank transfer or credit card. We’d assumed the request for the pleasure of our company in court was free. This totally changed things. We decided we would not entertain the whole ludicrous scenario a moment longer and firmly ignored all subsequent letters. Tragically, the dreams I’d relished (sorry) of starring in my very own Netflix show were crushed, as shattered now and messy as a dropped jar of pickles. And the feud was back on.","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1t9hzz5xcwenm0in6be/1/19aug26-life-p37-1-jpg.webp","byline":"","description":"Quite the pickle","height":587,"id":"contentid/1t9hzz5xcwenm0in6be","title":"19Aug26-Life-p37 (1).jpg","width":1045,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":"2026-08-24T13:42:17.277Z","publishedDate":"2026-08-21T11:13:00.223Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/1728g93056vtswbctg7","name":"Misha Mansoor ","bio":"","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1728g93056vtswbctg7/2/image.webp","instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":"","url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/misha-mansoor-qyogu596","path":"/author/misha-mansoor-qyogu596"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Family","url":"tag/Family","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"Life","path":"/life","id":"contentid/section.thejc.life-and-culture"}},{"__typename":"Article","id":"contentid/1t9hfanidm5p25xi57e","url":"https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/hamas-gaza-hospital-interrogate-torture-civilians-v4g6pt6j","path":"/news/israel/hamas-gaza-hospital-interrogate-torture-civilians-v4g6pt6j","title":"Hamas using Gaza hospital to ‘interrogate and torture’ civilians, Shin Bet claims","teaserHeadline":"","teaserImage":null,"teaserOvertitle":null,"subtitle":"Patients and staff at Nasser Hospital have reportedly witnessed masked men in the compound, which the terror group is said to be using as an ‘internal security hub’","bodyText":"Hamas is using outpatient clinics at one of Gaza's biggest hospitals to interrogate and torture civilians suspected of opposing its rule or collaborating with Israel, according to Israeli security agencies. In a joint statement yesterday, the IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said the terror group was using Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis, as an internal security hub as it struggled to maintain control over a war-ravaged population. Parts of the hospital, which was badly damaged during the war, are being used for “interrogations, torture, and collecting money,” the statement said. Patients and hospital staff have witnessed the permanent presence of Hamas operatives, some of them masked, in various areas of the hospital compound, and Nasser continues to serve as “major military infrastructure.” The IDF and Shin Bet said the hospital was being exploited for repression following an “erosion in support” among the people of Gaza for Hamas, which was trying to “impose its rule through intimidation, interrogations, and torture of residents.” They said: “The exploitation of civilian infrastructure for interrogations and torture is a widespread phenomenon within the Hamas terror organisation. \"These actions by the Hamas terror organisation constitute a violation of international law, which prohibits the military use of hospitals.\" The reports are based on intelligence gathered by the IDF and Shin Bet during operations in Khan Younis. Hamas, Palestinian health authorities, and humanitarian groups have rejected the claims.","image":{"__typename":"Image","baseUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/1t9hjzo2ixplhgu9o30/0/copy-of-gettyimages-2214254777-jpg.webp","byline":"AFP via Getty Images","description":"Exterior view of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on May 13, 2025 (Getty Images)","height":2667,"id":"contentid/1t9hjzo2ixplhgu9o30","title":"Copy of GettyImages-2214254777.jpg","width":4000,"altText":null},"sponsorLogo":null,"sponsorName":"","sponsored":false,"updatedDate":null,"publishedDate":"2026-08-21T10:44:18.519Z","authors":[{"__typename":"Author","id":"contentid/17n9xhsohe5eo84fmij","name":"John Jeffay","bio":"","role":"","title":null,"facebookUrl":null,"imageUrl":"https://api.thejc.atexcloud.io/image-service/view/acePublic/alias/contentid/17n9xhsohe5eo84fmij/2/image.webp","instagramUrl":null,"twitterUrl":null,"url":"https://www.thejc.com/author/john-jeffay-qghw91z8","path":"/author/john-jeffay-qghw91z8"}],"articleType":"NEWS","cookTime":"","teaserSummary":"","byline":"","tags":[{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Gaza","url":"tag/Gaza","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Hamas","url":"tag/Hamas","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Khan Younis","url":"tag/Khan Younis","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Editors Pick","url":"tag/Editors Pick","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"IDF","url":"tag/IDF","dimension":"tag"},{"__typename":"Tag","name":"Shin Bet","url":"tag/Shin Bet","dimension":"tag"}],"parent":{"__typename":"Section","title":"Israel","path":"/news/israel","id":"contentid/section.thejc.news.israel"}}]