Boy in The Striped Pyjamas author sinks to new low with the melodramatic sequelJews in John Boyne's work are reduced to landscape rather than real charactersBy Tanya Gold 3 min read
Reform JudaismThe Finchley talent factory: Trio from same shul win national recognition for their artistic achievementsJaren Ziegler, Dora Fidler and Isaac Reuben, all 17, have been shortlisted for writing and music awardsBy Karen Glaser3 min read
BooksNo secrets, no shanda - the feminist pioneer who’s not scared to uncover family scandalsLetty Cottin Pogrebin, the founder of America’s flagship feminist Ms magazine, has written a wonderfully uncompromising bookBy Jenni Frazer7 min read
BooksBook review: Emergency State: How We Lost Our Freedoms in the Pandemic and Why it Matters - When Covid ruled usIt’s hard to disagree with human rights lawyer Adam Wagner when he writes in his new book that 'British society became as close to a police state as in living memory' when coronavirus struckBy Robert Low2 min read
BooksBook review: The Story of Russia - Russia’s story always excluded JewsOrlando Figes' new work is a truly incisive and important dissection of this country's troubled pastBy Colin Shindler1 min read
UkraineOur battle to tell the world about Babyn YarWidow, 89, reveals how the pair unveiled the full, uncensored story of the massacre to the worldBy Nic North4 min read
BooksBook review: The English GI - A soldier’s graphic storyMoving story told in pictures mixing maps, drawings and moving family photographsBy David Herman1 min read
Book review: Józef Piłsudski: Founding Father of Modern Poland - Modern Poland’s forgotten founderA detailed, absorbing book that peels back the complexities of histories to reclaim this figure for a new generationBy Colin Shindler2 min read||September 29, 2022 15:28
Jewish literature is rich with very English ironyFrom the transformation of Dickens' Fagin from contemptible villain to genial personality of the musical stage, the history of Jews and fiction has seen plenty of twists and turnsBy Gerald Jacobs3 min read||September 29, 2022 13:37
Book review: The Daughter of Auschwitz - Tova's miracleThe horrors of the Holocaust brought shudderingly to life from the point of view of a small child who could barely read or recognise numbersBy Jenni Frazer3 min read||September 22, 2022 14:10
Book review: Clouds over Paris - the banal life of an occupierFascinating chronicle of the Nazi-occupied French capital shows how the most everyday issues seem more important than the biggest historical issues of the dayBy David Herman1 min read||September 22, 2022 14:07
Did The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas need a sequel?Critics attacked John Boyne's 2006 novel for obscuring the historical reality of the Holocaust. Now he's back with a follow-upBy David Herman2 min read||September 15, 2022 14:59
Book review: Maror - The bitter taste of Israel’s inky heart of darknessTidhar's blockbuster work shows us the thieves, the tramps, the prostitutes, the violence, filth and corruption underlying the good behind the Zionist dreamBy Jenni Frazer2 min read||September 13, 2022 10:40
Book review: The People Immortal - A final war novel from a Russian masterA gripping chronicle of Soviet life in wartime and an indispensable companion piece to the author's other worksBy David Herman2 min read||September 13, 2022 10:40
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power TV review: Hamishe dwarves …but what’s it all about?Amazon's blockbuster production is as close as television gets to the cinematic but after two episodes, for all the superb special effects, acting, music and costumes, we are left wondering where this journey is taking usBy Josh Howie2 min read||September 8, 2022 11:02
Highgate headstone at last for Babyn Yar author Anatoly KuznetsovDonations poured in after an appeal was launched last month to raise £2,000 to memorialise the last resting place of the man who wrote about the mass slaughter of Jews in UkraineBy Nic North1 min read||September 1, 2022 14:52
