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
Jeremy Corbyn’s accumulated sayings over the last 40 years has proved to be treasure trove for his many critics. From his inability to act as a mediator between Israelis and Palestinians to currently defending the authoritarian Maduro government in Venezuela in the name of socialism, Mr Corbyn’s past is proving to be an albatross around … Read more
Last week the Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, telephoned the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Gaza to express his government’s strong support for the Palestinian cause. Significantly Mahathir chose Palestinian Islamism and not Palestinian nationalism, Hamas rather than Fatah, to demonstrate Malaysian solidarity. His publicised telephone call came shortly after his controversial anti-Jewish – as … Read more
MENAHEM BEGIN spent almost three decades astutely constructing a broad coalition of the right based on his own Herut movement until his election in 1977, when he began to realise that the responsibilities of office differed vastly from opposition.He was confronted with a rebellion when only 57 per cent of Herut loyalistsvoted for the Camp … Read more
Thousands of eager participants are returning from the UK Limmud Festival, whose message of openness in Jewish life has proved a challenge to conformists within the Jewish world and spawned more than 80 Limmud communities across the world – from Beijing to Jerusalem and from New Zealand to New York, run by the brightest and best of … Read more
Forty years ago, the Iranian revolution was reaching its zenith. 1978 had been marked by demonstrations and a massacre of protesters in Tehran’s Jaleh Square in September. By mid-January 1979, the Shah had gone into exile and the Queen’s visit to Iran in the royal yacht, Britannia, had been abruptly cancelled. On 1 February, the Ayatollah … Read more
TWO HUNDRED and thirty years ago a small wooden flotilla sailed into Sydney Cove. This First Fleet of 1788 consisted of two warships and three store vessels which contained sheep, cattle and horses plus enough provisions for two years. Its most important cargo was contained in six transportation ships — 789 convicts from Britain accompanied … Read more
There has been much criticism over the Board of Deputies’ invitation to the Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, to represent the Labour party at a Chanukah service in the House of Lords. Such opprobrium omits any recognition that political differences exist between Jeremy Corbyn and many on his front bench. Ms Rayner, who has voiced … Read more
Eighty years ago, synagogues in Germany burned. It was Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass — a turning point in National Socialism’s war on the Jews, when Hitler ordered a state-sponsored assault on its Jewish minority, the first step on the road to Auschwitz. A powerful JC editorial commented: “It is the culmination of a process which … Read more
IT WILL TAKE A NEW generation, and a change of leadership, on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict for there to be a real possibility of progress towards peace, one of the world’s leading scholars on Israel believes. Professor Colin Shindler, a visiting British academic who will deliver the first of three lectures at the University … Read more