Ben Hecht was one of the 20th century’s greatest scriptwriters for the silver screen. He wrote – or had a hand in writing – the scripts for iconic films including Scarface, Barbary Coast, Stagecoach and Gone with the Wind. As Adina Hoffman, the author of this wonderful biography of Hecht, notes, “The list is ridiculous … Read more
Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction to Julian Assange’s forced exit from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London last week was to laud him as a twenty-first century folk hero for exposing “evidence of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan” – and to call on the British government to oppose extradition to the U.S. That kneejerk support was hardly surprising. It follows … Read more
The fringe pro-Corbyn group Jewish Voice for Labour has many antecedents in Jewish history — representing, as they do, the few and not the many, and eagerly embraced by a ruling elite. Some have been ideologically opposed to Zionism, such as the Bundists and the Charedim, others have been disillusioned socialist Zionists. Some have been accidental Jews … Read more
We do not know what tidings you are bringing with you from your visit to our neighbour, Egypt, whether the dove that emerged from the Ark carries an olive branch in her mouth to signal that the waters have subsided so that people can put their feet on the ground once more. So spoke President … Read more
Dangerous Hero: Corbyn’s Ruthless Plot for Power By Tom Bower Published by William Collins 2019, pp. 371 price 20 pounds Tom Bower’s reputation as a popular biographer reflects his ability to tear down the edifice of respectability, carefully constructed by the well-to-do and powerful. In this book, he deconstructs the mythical Jeremy Corbyn, the anti-hero … Read more
THE GENESIS OF THE LIKUD Since the election of the Likud in 1977, the party has led government for 28 out of those 42 years. In addition it partnered Labour in the rotation government (1984-1988). Likud was only truly out of power when Ariel Sharon’s Centre-Right Kadima ruled between November 2005 until February 2009 and … Read more
MAURICE PERLZWEIG was one of the great n a m e s o f J e w i s h diplomacy during the inter-war and postwar periods. When he died in New York in 1985, a lonely, forgotten figure, police had to break into his apartment where they discovered a large number of books, newspapers, … Read more
Pope Francis’s announcement that the Vatican will open the archives on the life and times of his predecessor, Pius XII (1939-1958) – some 16 million pages – has answered the call of historians over many decades. The attitude of Pius towards Jews, anti-Semitism and Nazi atrocities has remained a matter of controversy for Jewish and … Read more
AS THE DEADLINE FOR submitting party lists neared on February 21, Benny Gantz (Hosen l’Yisrael) and Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) joined forces to form a centrist bloc, ‘Blue and White’ for the 2019 Israeli election in early April. It represents the strongest challenge to Netanyahu for years. In the two months since Netanyahu called an election, … Read more
In the early 1970s, Rabbi Meir Kahane visited Britain to establish a Jewish Defence League to advance the cause of Soviet Jewry. I worked to stop him because I had seen what had happened in the US. In 1968 Kahane formed the JDL in New York to campaign for Soviet Jewry, target perceived antisemites and … Read more