Colin Shindler

Coalition Crisis

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A crisis in Israel’s ruling coalition was always a distinct possibility, ever since prime minister Yitzhak Rabin persuaded the secular Meretz and the religious Shas parties to join his Labour-led government But now the strains are beginning to show. Shas, together with other religious parties, has been calling for the dismissal of Shulamit Aloni, the … Read more

One Faith, Two Worlds

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Piety and Power: the World of Jewish Fundamentalism by David Landau (London 1993)   THE hermetic world of Jewish fundamentalism is an enigma to many Jews and non-Jews alike. The fundamentalists were, for example, against the recent controversial proposal by mainstream Orthodox Jews to erect an eruv in Barnet last month — much to the … Read more

The Female Learning Curve

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On first reading, the ruling by the Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, legitimizing women’s prayer groups, seems to be an important step forward for large numbers of orthodox women. He has acknowledged the growing demand from Jewish women for a more authentic framework for spiritual expression. It is also abundantly clear from his consensual statement that … Read more

Rabin’s Double Bind

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  Yitzhak Rabin’s offer to allow 100 deported Palestinians to return from their freezing camp in Lebanon was the result of pressure, not just from the Clinton administration, but from within his own cabinet. With hindsight, dovish ministers in the Labour-led coalition regarded the deportation of more than 400 Hamas supporters as an incredible blunder. … Read more

Twilight of the Idols

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THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE: AN ACCOUNT OF OUR TIMES David Selbourne For those who felt uplifted by Rocking Bill Clinton’s inauguration, this book is the ideal antidote. Its lurid tales of rape and pillage, Aids proliferation and ethnic cleansing, neo-Nazism and Islamic fundamentalism, are guaranteed to depress even the most questioning optimist’s hopes for … Read more

The Heirs of Ferdinand and Isabella

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Five hundred years ago, the Jews of Catholic Spain were expelled from their homeland by the practitioners of a religious fanaticism who believed that they had God on their side. The talents and contributions of minorities, whether Jewish or Muslim, were unwanted in a religiously pure Iberia. Those Jews who did not prostrate themselves before the priests of Ferdinand and Isabella left to seek new … Read more

Labour Politics through Jewish Eyes

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    An Interview with Gerald Kaufman MP 5 August 1992   CS: I believe that you apologized to your constituents shortly after Labour’s defeat in the 1992 elections for not being in a position to do more to help eradicate their poverty. GK: I didn’t apologize. What I said was that those of my constituents who were in a … Read more

On Barry Shenker

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Barry Shenker: For Judaism and Justice THE sorrow at Barry Shenker’s unexpected death, at the age of 48, showed in the eyes of everybody silently standing at the grave-3ide. They included Jews, Christians and Muslims, secular and religious, ideological opponents and political friends, Israelis and Palestinians. It was a testimony to Barry’s ability to tanscend … Read more

Scaling Old Heights

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A month after the Labour party’s victory in the June elections in Israel, the then US Secretary of State, James Baker, brushed aside a document submitted by a Palestinian delegation and abruptly told them: “Take what Israel is offering now. Build on it. Don’t waste the opportunity!” This is, perhaps the major psychological hurdle that … Read more