In September 1940, David Ben-Gurion undertook a hazardous voyage across the Atlantic on board the requisitioned Cunard cruiseliner, the Scythia, arriving in New York just before Yom Kippur. He had been in London since early May and observed first-hand the fall of France, the Battle of Britain and death and destruction during the Blitz. He was … Read more
Even if conditions prove reasonable, the loss of faith in a peace agreement has been so profound that it would take a lot to overcome the psychological hurdle – both sides believe that their leaders are unable to face making historic decisions.” This quote at the beginning of Be Strong and of Good Courage, an … Read more
An official ceremony took place last week in the old Jewish cemetery in Hebron to mark 90 years since the Tarpat disturbances which resulted in 67 Jews being killed by their Arab neighbours. The brutality precipitated an exodus and Jews only returned to Hebron after the Six Day War in 1967. The disturbances originated in … Read more
https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/what-is-zionism-a-very-brief-history/p07hk4yc?playlist=the-a-z-of-isms
One hundred years ago, on 28 June 1919, the victorious powers in the First World War signed the Treaty of Versailles with Germany. It was followed by treaties with Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey — the defeated powers in a conflict in which millions lost their lives. The Paris Peace Conference in 1919 was supposed … Read more
The Charedi refusal to serve in the IDF — the stumbling block in Netanyahu’s inability to form a governing coalition — is rooted in an ideological opposition to Zionism and a reticence to come to terms with modernity. It was the combination of the French Revolution and the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, that fragmented a hitherto … Read more
Sylvia Becker née Rosenhead Born 26 April 1925 Died 13 February 2019 Sylvia Becker was one of ‘those wonderful women in black’ – the 35s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry – who quietly changed the course of Jewish history. Never one to push herself to the front, she spent the 1970s committed to this cause before … Read more
One of the celebrated Women in Black, the 35s Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, Sylvia Becker, who has died aged 93, spent the 1970s committed to the cause before moving to Israel in 1980 and fading back into family life. Leeds-born Sylvia Rosenhead studied dispensing at Leeds University and was evacuated to Stoke Poges and … 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
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