Books What made Osip Mandelshtam tick?This book is a fascinating introduction to one of the great modern poetsBy David Herman1 min read
BooksHimmler’s Curtains: How my survivor mother ended up living in a Nazi leader’s houseThis beautifully written memoir is full of startling vignettes, but using a psuedonym in this age of disinformation and denial feels a disservice to the readerBy Jennifer Lipman2 min read
Books The Jewish Renoir girls who were betrayed by FranceCatherine Ostler’s new book explores the fate of the children in the painter’s famous work Pink and Blue, one of whom was murdered at AuschwitzBy Eliana Jordan3 min read
BooksAcerbic verse from a ‘cantakerous’ Yiddish poetAnyone with an interest in Yiddish culture, or simply first-class poetry, will relish this excellent selectionBy Mark Glanville2 min read
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 realBy David Bennun2 min read
Books Shushu review: ‘Motherhood, warts and all, beautiful, ugly and true’This graphic novel by a Jewish writer is a gift for a woman who is out the other side but can still see those moments in the rear windowBy Jennifer Lipman1 min read
Books Meet the world’s first fascistThis is a revelatory biography about the Frenchman who almost fought Dreyfus in a duelBy Robert Low3 min read
BooksWill Self: What inspired me to write this book? The Glasto crowd chanting ‘Death to the IDF’Twenty years on from his public resignation as a Jew, the novelist explains where he stands nowBy David Bennun6 min read
October 7Melanie Phillips’s new guide to our antagonists and how to fight them fair and squareThis punchy and practical handbook to battling Jew-hate is more than timelyBy Dominic Green3 min read
Children's booksWhy did people stand by when the Gestapo came child-hunting?From carrying messages for the Resistance to hugging at the Seder table, our pick of the best new books for childrenBy Angela Kiverstein1 min read
Books A useful handbook on the Israel-Palestine deadlock...until it turns to NetanyahuColin Shindler’s historical guide is erudite and concise but perhaps guilty of wishful thinking when it describes a Tel Aviv rally as Bibi’s ‘Ceaușescu moment’By Robert Low3 min read
BooksHoward Jacobson’s brilliant new book on the moral insanity unleashed by October 7Howl is the first major British novel to address why so many in this country have been driven mad with hatred for IsraelBy David Herman2 min read
Kisharon Langdon‘Our social enterprise gives people work experience and the confidence to go into the big, wide world’To mark World Book Day, the JC joined Kisharon Langdon members at its huge second-hand books warehouse in HarrowBy Ben Conway4 min read
Books How landlord Rachman’s name became a household word for the worst reasonsNeil Roots has written a well-researched if lightly-edited biography about a man whose deeds were indefensibleBy Robert Low3 min read
Books Making the Cut review: razor-sharp tips on how to become an observant JewThis entertaining memoir does an excellent job of steering the non-Jewish, or less informed Jewish, reader through the maze of Orthodox JudaismBy Jenni Frazer2 min read
Books New tales from the GhettoYou may think we know everything we need to about the world’s first ghetto and its Jews, but this remarkable history proves otherwiseBy Jenni Frazer1 min read
Books Meet the Holmes (and Watson) of pre-war East European JewryThe 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 destructionBy Mark Glanville2 min read
BooksSex, lies and terroristsEllie Levenson’s thriller is a twisty page-turner with an intriguing concept that grabs from the get-goBy Jennifer Lipman1 min read
Books There’s no easy cure for the world’s longest hatred. But this book is a startThis 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 JewsBy Nicole Lampert2 min read
Holocaust filmOne rabbi’s search for the boys who survived an Auschwitz gas chamberRabbi Naftali Schiff’s 20-year mission to track down the 51 boys who left Crematorium 5 alive has resulted in a book and filmBy Eliana Jordan3 min read
Books The horror behind Hayim Bialik’s most feted poemOn the Slaughter is considered the Russian-Jewish poet’s masterpiece, as well as his most controversial workBy David Herman1 min read
Books If you wanted something done in Jewish Europe 300 years ago, who did you ask?The findings of this excellent work of scholarship will likely not surprise all readers of this newspaper...By Jennifer Lipman3 min read
Jewish children's booksWhat’s the difference between an emigrant and an immigrant?Our critic rounds up the best new titles for young readers, from science and fairy tales to discussion-startersBy Angela Kiverstein1 min read
