David Bennun

Writer

Latest from David Bennun

Books

The Tribe review: ‘a brilliantly told story of a once gilded Sephardi family’

This epic set in Jewish Salonica is full of ideas, marvellously rich in detail and its people feel real

2 min read

The way we were: Michael Arditti's new saga, and the Kovo family in Salonica, in Greece, which under Ottoman rule was Europe's only Jewish-majority city

Roger Waters, founding member of former rock band Pink Floyd, performs in Buenos Aires on March 7, 2010 as part of his "The Wall Live" world tour. (Image: Getty)

They may think of me as a bloodthirsty Zionist – but I still love their art

4 min read

One-state solutionist: Will Self and his new book

Will Self: What inspired me to write this book? The Glasto crowd chanting ‘Death to the IDF’

6 min read

Virtuoso phrasemaker: Howard Jacobson at the launch of his new book (Photo: Gary Manhine)

Howard Jacobson: ‘October 7? It was as if permission had been given to do this to the Jews’

7 min read

Western Holocaust erasure and antizionism follows an old Soviet script

It is curious how the day marking the liberation of Auschwitz is the only date in the year when so many people who otherwise obsess endlessly about Jews suddenly lose the capacity to mention Jews at all

4 min read

February 5, 2026 14:08

How I found the real Philip Roth

David Bennun talks to Steven J. Zipperstein about his new literary biography of the pre-eminent Jewish novelist

6 min read

January 15, 2026 13:39

Defying his detractors: Philip Roth (right) and Steven J Zipperstein

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

David Bennun has high praise for The Effingers, a beautifully subtle novel describing Germany’s slide into Nazism

5 min read

December 18, 2025 16:55

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This critical biography of Carole King pays close attention to her Jewishness and how, while lightly worn, it informed her life and work

1 min read

December 4, 2025 17:35

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

A welcome guide on combatting extremism from a figure who can draw on decades of hard-won street-level experience doing exactly that

4 min read

October 29, 2025 15:07

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

This historical account of antisemitism is a remarkable exercise in cognitive dissonance

3 min read

September 25, 2025 12:12

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

In his latest book, James Bloodworth immerses himself in the so-called manosphere and finds a world that closely resembles, and frequently crosses over with, the far right. Not least in its attitudes to Jews

2 min read

August 7, 2025 10:24

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude

From the viewpoints of its three protagonists, ‘The Unworthy’ is a credible depiction of its tough working-class world

1 min read

July 31, 2025 10:08

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude

The Age of Hitler review: What's next for the West? And will it be good for the Jews?

This is an incisive and persuasive account of how the story of the Second World World has been the West’s defining narrative of the past 80 years. But when the author predicts the resurgence of a Christian tradition, his polemic becomes vaporous

2 min read

July 11, 2025 12:26

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann review: ‘everyone is a collaborator’

This fictionalised portrait of Austrian film-maker GW Pabst and his moral struggles under the Nazis immerses us in a world thick with fear, corruption and self-deception

1 min read

June 19, 2025 16:18

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann review: ‘everyone is a collaborator’

Year of the Rat review: ‘proof the threat to British Jews from the far right never went away’

This report on the new face of the far right is timely and frightening in equal measure

3 min read

June 11, 2025 16:29

England's shame: last month's Great British National Strike rally on Downing Street

The age-old link between antisemitism and misogyny

The parallels between the abuse suffered by women at the hands of extreme trans rights activists and what Jews endure from self-professed Palestinian supporters are striking

4 min read

April 24, 2025 14:36

Susan Smith (left) and Marion Calder, directors of For Women Scotland speak to the media outside the Supreme Court following its ruling that women are defined as biological females in terms of the Equality Act 2010 (Image: Getty)

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David Bennun

Latest from David Bennun

The Tribe review: ‘a brilliantly told story of a once gilded Sephardi family’

They may think of me as a bloodthirsty Zionist – but I still love their art

Will Self: What inspired me to write this book? The Glasto crowd chanting ‘Death to the IDF’

Howard Jacobson: ‘October 7? It was as if permission had been given to do this to the Jews’

More from David Bennun

Western Holocaust erasure and antizionism follows an old Soviet script

How I found the real Philip Roth

Goodbye to Berlin – a lost Jewish Germany is brought back to life in an epic saga

How being Jewish shaped the career of a Seventies music superstar

This is how we defeat Britain’s far right

On Antisemitism: A Word In History review – a book to comfort Jew-hate apologists at the expense of Jews

Lost Boys review: ‘a useful guide to masculinity’

The Unworthy review: A story of boy criminals in Nazi-occupied Norway told with convincing verisimilitude

The Age of Hitler review: What's next for the West? And will it be good for the Jews?

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann review: ‘everyone is a collaborator’

Year of the Rat review: ‘proof the threat to British Jews from the far right never went away’

The age-old link between antisemitism and misogyny