The left-wing New Statesman magazine put a kippah on the cover this week for a 72-page special issue on British Jewry, which was due to go on sale yesterday.

It is a sensitive area. If you recall, 10 years ago the publication, under a different editor, ran into trouble with a cover story on Zionism, which displayed a Union Jack impaled by a large Magen David. The image was widely condemned as antisemitic.

Apart from Labour leader Ed Miliband, contributors include Will Self, David Baddiel and Linda Grant.

The debate on antisemitism between Anthony Julius, author of Trials of the Diaspora, and Liberal Rabbi David Goldberg should be lively. While Julius's opus on antisemitism has been acclaimed by such as Philip Roth, Goldberg was none too complimentary about it in his own, new book on Judaism, This is not the Way.