Colin ShindlerWhen the scale of the defeat of the Iraqi forces in the Gulf War became apparent, there was a sense of quiet satisfaction in some Jewish quarters that the case for Israel was now fully recognized by the West. The Palestinians in the Territories had frittered away all their hard-won support by their emotional outpourings … Read more
Proud, but invisible A SENSE OF BELONGING: DILEMMAS OF BRITISH JEWISH IDENTITY Howard Cooper and Paul Morrison Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £16 Colin Shindler British Jews have that sense of oneness, often admired and sometimes resented, which appears as an impregnable fortress of indefinable purpose. The authors of this book of a new Channel 4 series … Read more
Jacob Frank will always be remembered as one of the most frightening phenomena in Jewish history: a religious leader who, whether for purely self-interested motives or otherwise, was in all his actions a truly corrupt and degenerate individual. So wrote one of the greatest Jewish scholars of our time, Gershom Scholem—and it can be stated … Read more
The security of the State of Israel is the central psychological factor which governs the approach of the ordinary citizen to the Palestinian problem. But how is national security interpreted? Does control over the West Bank and its inhabitants increase Israel’s national security or does it ultimately endanger the existence of the Jewish state? If … Read more
In a few weeks, the triennial election for the Presidency of the Board of Deputies of British Jews will be upon us. For many, it will be an occasion of numbing irrelevance despite the quality of the candidates. The current state of the Board is deeply depressing for all committed and concerned British Jews. And … Read more
To judge by the noises of horror that greeted the appointment of Rehavam Ze’evi to the Israeli cabinet, one would imagine that the ideas he stands for—most notably, “transfer” of Palestinians out of the Occupied Territories—were outside the bounds of decent opinion. Even the defence minister, Moshe Arens, a prominent figure on the Israeli right, … Read more
1990 was a bad year for both Israelis and Palestinians. It was the year when the dialogue had to stop. The pragmatists on both sides who had advocated partition and compromise proved unable to restrain their vociferous maximalists, who spoke the language of violence and retaliation. Deep emotions and tribal passions pushed aside the voices … Read more
Andrei Sakharov died on 15 December 1989. The abundance of tributes accorded to him tended to concentrate on his more recent role is an opponent of the gradualist policies of the Gorbachev regime. Yet perhaps more than anyone else, he was responsible for the historic changes that have taken place in the Soviet Union and, … Read more
On the 800th anniversary of the York Massacre: Yom Kippur as Jewish History On Yom Kippur, Jews come to shul for a plethora of reasons. Many come for reasons of faith. Others come for reasons of culture. Still others come for reasons of both faith and culture. Some come out of a sense of guilt. Some … Read more
A new Jewish listings monthly, New Moon, appears on Thursday. A sort of Jewish Time Out, it sets out to appeal to the younger generation of Anglo-Jews whose needs and interests have remained unanswered by the official face of the community. Whether this initiative will be translated into financial stability is another question. The Jewish … Read more