Life

Purim

Purim at the Museum

How the artefacts at the British Museum reveal the ancient history of the Jews and tell the book of Esther

By Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum

5 min read

Walk the talk: Rabbi Zarum leading a tour at the British Museum

Monuments to another era: Gaby and Steve at the headstone of Kaija Cimberknopf, and the Braun family

Poland

The Jewish cemetery reclaimed by nature – and my husband

By Gaby Koppel

5 min read

Paying tribute: flowers left my mourners on the Bondi Beach promenade in Sydney after December's attack

Instagram

Why I have stopped posting on social media

By Eliana Jordan

3 min read

Books

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Jewish Comedy

‘The dark humour of Dad, who fled Hitler, runs through my new show’

By Miranda Levy

3 min read

Film

The Testament of Ann Lee review: ‘an unexpected use of movement and music’ ★★★★

Brilliant score and choreography breathes life into this haunting tale of vision and faith

By John Nathan

1 min read

Our film October 8 was rejected by every major festival

Jewish American filmmaker Wendy Sachs discusses her new documentary about tackling campus antisemitism

By John Nathan

4 min read

Documenting hate: Ethiopian-Israeli activist Ashager Araro

Jewish food

‘As a boy I didn’t know bagels were Jewish! Now I make the best challah’

Cornish-born recipe developer and food photographer Trevennon Dakota-Levy shares how reconnecting with his Jewish identity informed his latest recipe book, Baketisserie

By Alma Green

4 min read

Cornish-born, Jewish recipe developer and food photographer Trevennon Dakota-Levy (Picture: Trevennon Dakota-Levy)

Theatre

Broken Glass review: There’s an urgency to Arthur Miller’s most explicitly Jewish play today ★★★★

American director Jordan Fein is back on a London stage after a triumphant revival of Into the Woods

By John Nathan

2 min read

Pearl Chanda as Sylvia Gellburg 'ignites the simmering potential' of Broken Glass at the Young Vic

Lifestyle

Howard Jacobson

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

The novelist on how an extended rant against the surge in global antisemitism turned into his brilliant new book Howl

By David Bennun

7 min read

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

Books

How landlord Rachman’s name became a household word for the worst reasons

Neil Roots has written a well-researched if lightly-edited biography about a man whose deeds were indefensible

By Robert Low

3 min read

Shameful: (right) post-war slum housing in London. Left: Neil Root's new book

Purim

Why Purim is the day to find out what really suits you

Judaism’s most joyous holiday is the perfect pretext for a wardrobe breakthrough

By Lara Benjamin

3 min read

Why Purim is the day to find out what really suits you

Love

Want to be a matchmaker? It’s not as easy as you might think

Karen Glaser, who runs the JC’s Blind Date column, on the joys and oys of Jewish matchmaking

By Karen Glaser

3 min read

Crazy little thing called love: Aleeza Ben Shalom and, inset, the JC's Karen Glaser

Theatre

Giselle review: Marianela wins hearts with her meltingly beautiful movement ★★★★

This traditional production of the great romantic ballet offers a pleasing, if unsurprising, performance, with several standout debuts

By Joy Sable

2 min read

Giselle. Royal Opera House, Royal Ballet.

Theatre

Dracula review: Cynthia mesmerises but the show lacks real bite ★★★★

The performer’s acting gifts are on full display in this spectacular adaptation of the gothic novel, but the evening never achieves the tension generated by many other West End dabblings in the supernatural

By John Nathan

2 min read

Theatre

Here There Are Blueberries review: ‘What makes a Nazi a Nazi?’ ★★★★★

This forensic Pultizer-finalist docu-play settles the question of what allows a person to perpetrate atrocity while enjoying the normal pleasures of life

By John Nathan

2 min read

Framed horror: a scene from Here There Are Blueberries (Photo: David Cromer)

Theatre

What Hitler’s henchmen and women did in their time off

John Nathan meets a writer whose Pulitzer-finalist play, inspired by a Nazi photograph album, is making its UK debut

By John Nathan

6 min read

Writing pair: Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich

Film & TV

All TV

Film

Wuthering Heights review: ‘This sex-heavy new interpretation never feels as daring as the old’

By John Nathan

1 min read

Hamlet review: ‘watchable but wearying’★★

This bold and radical version of Shakespeare’s most famous play is lost in a south Indian translation

By John Nathan

1 min read

One rabbi’s search for the boys who survived an Auschwitz gas chamber

Rabbi Naftali Schiff’s 20-year mission to track down the 51 boys who left Crematorium 5 alive has resulted in a book and film

By Eliana Jordan

3 min read

Send Help review: gruesomely enjoyable modern-day castaway tale ★★★★

The master-slave tables are turned upside down in this tropical island thriller

By John Nathan

2 min read

Travel

All Travel

The richly decorated Spanish Synagogue bears Magen David motifs, which Czech Jews were the first in the world to adopt as their personal symbol in 1358 (Photo: Dana Cabanova)

Travel

In praise of Prague

By Anthea Gerrie

5 min read

Grandfather’s ski-steps

Until last January, only one other member of Karen Glaser’s family had taken to the slopes. Then she went skiing in the majestic Dolomites

By Karen Glaser

3 min read

Keeping kosher in marvellous Montenegro

It was made famous by James Bond. And the hechshered hospitality at Dukley Hotel & Resort is outstanding. But where exactly is this enchanting country?

By Victoria Prever

6 min read

South Africa with a Jewish flavour

Two centuries after the first Jew made it his home, the ‘Rainbow Nation’ is now a must-see corner of the diaspora. But for all its attractions – Big Five safaris, stunning coastlines – it’s still chained to the inequalities of its past

By Karen Glaser

9 min read

Books

All Books

Books

Making the Cut review: razor-sharp tips on how to become an observant Jew

By Jenni Frazer

2 min read

Meet the Holmes (and Watson) of pre-war East European Jewry

The non-literary Yiddish tales of Spitzkopf and his assistant Fuchs display an appealing sense of Jewish invincibility and as such provide an insight into the minds of the Jews on the eve of their destruction

By Mark Glanville

2 min read

Sex, lies and terrorists

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

By Jennifer Lipman

1 min read

There’s no easy cure for the world’s longest hatred. But this book is a start

This rigorous guide works for Jewish readers trying to comprehend how this irrational madness is happening again, and for allies grappling with the question of why people hate Jews

By Nicole Lampert

2 min read