booksQuestioning Belief, by Raphael Zarum – review: An essential resource that helps integrate Judaism with modernityA consummate communicator, Zarum tackles medieval thinkers with a light touchBy Harry Freedman2 min read
BooksWingate winner Elizabeth McCracken: ‘My fear is being boring in the service of accuracy’Elizabeth McCracken on the restlessly shape-shifting novel that won her the literary award for the best book to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general readerBy Claire Allfree5 min read
Books Review: Shylock’s Venice – An unimprovable bookA rigorous trawl through Venetian archives yields a work that begs for a lavish film adaptationBy Jenni Frazer3 min read
BooksHow Jewish refugees changed British childhoodThis is an extraordinary collection of essays about some extraordinary emigré artists and writersBy David Herman2 min read
BooksFinal Verdict by Tobias Buck review: ‘Would I have climbed down the watchtower and walked away?’This is insightful on the guilt, complicity and collaboration of the Third Reich’s fellow German travellers, including the author’s own grandfatherBy Colin Shindler2 min read
BooksA love affair in the shadows of the gas chambersThis book reads like a thriller, and if that encourages people to pick it up, good: 79 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz, living memories are fadingBy Jennifer Lipman2 min read
BooksThe Fleet Street hack who hobnobbed with Hitler before becoming a spyThe appearance of this book could not be more timely, nor its message more urgentBy Jenni Frazer3 min read
Book Week24‘Being Jewish is a gift for a novelist’The writer on the insider-outsider status of being a Jew, and why she enjoys confounding prejudice in her fiction and in lifeBy Amanda Craig3 min read
Counterfeit PrincessThe Counterfeit Countess, book review: The Jew who saved thousands of Poles by posing as a CatholicA new biography tells an extraordinary story of courageBy Amanda Hopkinson2 min read
Book Week24Yascha Mounk is showing the way out of today’s culture warsThe American writer is pushing back against the ‘woke’ identity theories that fuel antisemitismBy David Rose3 min read
FervourFervour by Toby Lloyd, review: An infuriatingly flawed debut novelThe (particularly Jewish) question at the heart of all this is how much we should revisit the past, says Felix PopeBy Felix Pope1 min read
Frederic Raphael‘Why still write? What is there better to do?’Oscar-winner Frederic Raphael is still writing at 92. He tells Mark Glanville how how work has helped him survive tragediesBy Mark Glanville5 min read
Glorious PeopleGlorious People by Sasha Salzmann, review: An in-depth study of friendship and family relations across two generationsAmanda Hopkinson is impressed by a novel about dislocation across the generationsBy Amanda Hopkinson2 min read
Books These books about hate are already out of dateDavid Herman finds much of interest in two timely essay collections about antisemitism — but why is there so little emphasis on Iran or immigration?By David Herman4 min read
What Will Survive of UsWhat Will Survive of Us by Howard Jacobson review: How smart word play can conceal an inner emptinessDavid Herman relishes the comic energy of Jacobson’s new novelBy David Herman2 min read
