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Books

The ordinary choices of ordinary people in post-war Germany

This is a remarkable novel about how everyday Europeans faced up to life as war drew to a close

By David Herman

3 min read

Focus on the unremarkable: Rachel Seiffert and her latest novel

Marital issues: Jerry Rabow and his book

Books

How Henry VIII turned to rabbis to divorce wife No1

By Jenni Frazer

5 min read

Displacement theme: Jenni Daiches and her new book

Books

My novel shows that Jews and Scots have more in common than you may think

By Jenni Frazer

5 min read

Books

Are we really so special? Two new works take on the great Jewish identity debate

By Alun David

5 min read

Fable-like tragicomedy: Manya Wilkinson and her book

Books

Manya Wilkinson: ‘I wanted to write an edgy novel about the shtetl’

By Jennifer Lipman

6 min read

May memories be blessings: Gayle Forman and her latest book

YA books

‘Judaism gets how to keep people alive after they die’

By Angela Kiverstein

4 min read

Books

The Chasidic stories that anticipate the parables of Franz Kafka

By David Herman

1 min read

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The Prosecutor review: ‘the Jew who put his country on trial’

This is a monumental biography of Fritz Bauer, the German-Jewish lawyer who went back to Deutschland to see justice done

By Jenni Frazer

2 min read

March 7, 2025 12:12

Driven: Jewish judge Fritz Bauer (centre) in Frankfurt in 1964 and the biography about him

Why aren’t Jews allowed to just be ordinary?

Yes, we’re often brilliant but we can also be desperately mediocre…

By Keith Kahn-Harris

3 min read

March 5, 2025 16:19

Normal people: Keith Kahn-Harris and his book

33 Place Brugmann review: ‘secrets, betrayal and courage in occupied Brussels’

From RAF pilots and members of the resistance risking their lives, to Jewish refugee nurses caring for the desperately wounded, this American playwright’s first novel is packed with twists and turns

By David Herman

1 min read

February 20, 2025 12:57

33 Place Brugmann review: ‘secrets, betrayal and courage in occupied Brussels’

A Fool’s Kabbalah review: ‘Is comedy a valid response the Shoah?’

Readers must decide for themselves if this challenging novel is a valid response to the nihilism inherent in the Holocaust

By Alun David

2 min read

February 20, 2025 12:36

A Fool’s Kabbalah review: ‘Is comedy a valid response the Shoah?’

‘For Peter Beinart, focusing on the right of Jews to be secure from terrorists is immoral’

Stephen Pollard reviews Peter Beinart’s new book Being Jewish after the destruction of Gaza

By Stephen Pollard

3 min read

February 20, 2025 12:14

‘For Peter Beinart, focusing on the right of Jews to be secure from terrorists is immoral’

Do the affluent and over-educated have problems?

This novel satirises the non-problems of privileged Americans with great humour and skill

By Jennifer Lipman

2 min read

February 16, 2025 12:12

Do the affluent and over-educated have problems?

The German Jew who fought his way through Europe to find his parents at Theresienstadt

This most dramatic of war stories has the makings of a marvellous TV series

By Robert Low

2 min read

February 16, 2025 11:40

The German Jew who fought his way through Europe to find his parents at Theresienstadt

By Ben M. Freeman

The crisis of faith: Recasting Judaism as a religion is destroying Jewish identity

To fully embrace Jewish indigeneity, we must re-examine how we define ourselves without an imposed Christian lens

7 min read

February 13, 2025 16:22

'The Jewish people were always self-described as an Am (people)' (Image: Getty)

The Last Days of Budapest review: ‘intrigue, horror and heroism in the Casablanca of central Europe’

Journalist Adam LeBor’s latest book quotes a wide range of newly revealed diaries and letters, and relates some remarkable tales of Jews being rescued

By Monica Porter

2 min read

February 7, 2025 09:26

Brutality on parade: Jews being rounded up in Budapest in 1944. Right: the writer's new book

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books

The ordinary choices of ordinary people in post-war Germany

How Henry VIII turned to rabbis to divorce wife No1

My novel shows that Jews and Scots have more in common than you may think

Are we really so special? Two new works take on the great Jewish identity debate

Manya Wilkinson: ‘I wanted to write an edgy novel about the shtetl’

‘Judaism gets how to keep people alive after they die’

The Chasidic stories that anticipate the parables of Franz Kafka

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More from books

The Prosecutor review: ‘the Jew who put his country on trial’

Why aren’t Jews allowed to just be ordinary?

33 Place Brugmann review: ‘secrets, betrayal and courage in occupied Brussels’

A Fool’s Kabbalah review: ‘Is comedy a valid response the Shoah?’

‘For Peter Beinart, focusing on the right of Jews to be secure from terrorists is immoral’

Do the affluent and over-educated have problems?

The German Jew who fought his way through Europe to find his parents at Theresienstadt

The crisis of faith: Recasting Judaism as a religion is destroying Jewish identity

The Last Days of Budapest review: ‘intrigue, horror and heroism in the Casablanca of central Europe’