The Jewish Chronicle

NEU teachers’ ‘appalling’ lesson plans days after October 7 attack

▶ TEACHERS AT Britain’s biggest education union shared lesson plans days after October 7 that “appeared to justify Hamas’s attack”, the JC can reveal. The materials shared by members of the National Education Union (NEU) in Bristol asked pupils to...

Jews stand with Iranians at UK protests against regime

▶ IRANIAN DISSIDENTS are being supported by British Jews at rallies in the UK amid reports of protesters in the Islamic Republic being massacred in a brutal crackdown. The uprising against the Tehran government has met the full force of the Islamic...

Villa Park’s Euro 2028 queried after ‘shameful’ Maccabi ban

▶ BIRMINGHAM’S SUITABILITY for Euro 2028 has been challenged by a former Football Association (FA) chair as the local police force is engulfed in crisis over a ban on Israeli fans. David Bernstein told the JC the “appalling” decision to stop Maccabi...

Chief Rabbi: I believe Jews do have long-term future in UK

▶ THE CHIEF Rabbi has said he believes Jews have a successful longterm future in Britain while also urging the authorities to do more to protect the community in the wake of antisemitic terror attacks. In an interview with the JC on his return from...

NHS will restart life-saving ‘Jewish cancer gene’ tests

▶ AN NHS scheme testing for a cancer gene found disproportionately among Jews is to be resumed next year, the health secretary has told the JC. The announcement by Wes Streeting has been welcomed by charities, experts and patients who have benefited...

The intifada has been globalised

▶ WHEN, IN the aftermath of October 7, demonstrators gather in front of Sydney’s Opera House, shouting “F**k the Jews” and “Gas the Jews”; when others, or the same ones, smear the walls of Australian cities – this land of refuge where so many...

Rachel Reeves: I'm an mtapologetic Zionist

▶ RACHEL REEVES has declared "unapologetically'' she is a Zionist in a landmark speech that has been hailed as demonstrating Labour's support for Israel is "alive and well". The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that "the belief that there is something...

Amsterdam ‘Jew hunt’ victim: Villa Park ban was antisemitic

▶ A MACCABI Tel Aviv fan who was attacked in the Amsterdam “Jew hunt” has branded the ban on the club’s supporters from Villa Park backed by West Midlands Police (WMP) as “antisemitic”, the JC can reveal. He has spoken out as a former home secretary...

Wrongfully arrested mum quizzed by police over her Jewish faith

▶ A WRONGFULLY arrested mother was interrogated by police about her Jewish faith and involvement in a Holocaust Memorial Day event at her daughter’s school, the JC can reveal. Citing a claim of “harassment” against her, an officer asked Rosalind...

Police force urged to reveal truth over Maccabi fan ban

+ WEST MIDLANDS Police (WMP) are facing calls for an independent probe after a dossier seen by the JC shows strong evidence that claims of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans hooliganism were wildly exaggerated to justify their ban. The force cited claims that up...

Mothers-to-be hire doulas to protect against NHS antisemitism

 JEWISH MOTHERS-TO-BE are hiring doulas to protect them and their babies from NHS antisemitism, the JC can reveal. Shoshana Maurer, a London-based doula – a non-medical professional who supports women during childbirth – said almost every pregnant...

THE MOVIE MAVENS ARE BACK

Extremism 1 Britain 0

+ IN THE latest turn in a saga that began with the outrageous decision by UK authorities to bar Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from next month’s match against Aston Villa, the Israeli club announced Monday that it would not accept tickets even if the ban is...

And your children shall return

The day we knew would come

 THE NIGHTMARE long feared has now become reality: two Jews were killed Thursday in Manchester, on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. The suspect has been named as Jihad al-shamie, a British citizen who arrived here as a child from Syria. We do...

Israel offers peace and hope

University challenge

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I SANG HATIKVAH AS A HOSTAGE IN GAZA

+“THEY TOOK me from here,” former hostage Gadi Moses told the JC, standing in the living room of the house in Kibbutz Nir Oz that he once shared with his partner, Efrat Katz. During Hamas’s massacre on October 7, 2023 Moses, 81, left his safe room,...

Abandoned at the UN

+ DAVID LAMMY’S statement on Monday marked a new low in Britain’s handling of the Gaza war. He uncritically accepted the IPC’S “famine” report – dismissed even by Washington as fatally flawed – and accused Israel of “refusing to allow sufficient...

There are no good options for Israel to free the hostages and defeat Hamas

 ISRAEL CONTINUES to be gripped by an unbearable choice as we approach the third year of the country’s longest war: should the Jewish state prioritise defeating Hamas or rescuing the hostages – men, women and children the jihadists seized precisely to...

‘Betrayed’

 WHEN AUTHORITIES shrink from confronting hatred, democracy itself is in retreat. On Saturday, Leeds offered a stark example. The city played host to yet another anti-israel march. The Jewish community, rightly alarmed by the roster of extreme...

MARCHING FOR THE HOSTAGES

 THE CHIEF Rabbi delivered a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state when he addressed a rally held to show solidarity with the hostages on Sunday. Progressive rabbis were later booed off stage at the event in...

Mission impossible

Facing an enemy using human shields and tunnels, Israel was expected to free hostages, defeat Hamas and avoid a humanitarian crisis. It was never feasible

Israel protects the Druze as the world looks away

THE MASSACRE of Druze civilians in southern Syria over the past week should have shocked the conscience of the civilised world. What unfolded – documented in videos and survivor testimonies – was a campaign of murder, rape and abduction, evoking grim...

Britain’s shame

Jew-hate has gone mainstream in the UK, as this week’s government-backed report lays bare. What can be done? See p2-4

Revealed: Jewish support for Labour slumps

 MORE THAN half of British Jews – 56 per cent – think that Labour’s actions in government have made the Jewish community less secure, according to a new poll for the JC. The poll also revealed that British Jews think that Sir Keir Starmer’s party has...

The BBC’S culture of anti-israel bias needs root-and-branch reform

+ A BAND chanted “Death to the IDF.” Thousands joined in. The BBC broadcast it live – with its director-general, Tim Davie, on site. There was no cut to the feed. No editorial override. Just a limp trigger warning about “strong language” and then...

What ‘never again’ looks like

THE JC SAYS  “ELECTIONS HAVE consequences,” a triumphant Barack Obama once said. On Saturday night, the world witnessed that principle in action once again. President Trump – long vocal about the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran – ordered the US Air...

Israel rewrites its future

+ MISSILES FALL on Tel Aviv. Entire housing blocks lie in ruins. Yet Israeli markets are rising. The shekel is strengthening. Have investors lost their senses? No, the smart money is on the Jewish state. They see not only a military power rewriting the...

How Israel is losing the West The scale of Israel’s war against Hamas has unleashed intense emotions – but rage with the Jewish state builds on an old script – see

 “WE ARE talking here of massacre, and a cover-up, of genocide,” wrote one Evening Standard columnist of Israel’s actions. The Guardian editorialised that the incident “already has that aura of infamy that attaches to a crime of especial notoriety”,...

Back to the worst deal ever?

▶ REPORTS ARE circulating that the United States may be considering an interim deal with Iran that would not remove the entire nuclear threat but only temporarily pause uranium enrichment. If confirmed, such an agreement would risk trading fleeting...

Intifada globalised

IF SANITY ever returns to the West, people will look back on this moment with the same bewilderment we now reserve for those less enlightened times when Jews were murdered for allegedly killing God. How did so many in a civilisation that prides itself...

THE NIGHT WHEN ISRAEL FELT THE LOVE

 THERE WAS a double helping of Eurovision delight for Israel and its supporters last weekend. Not only did Israeli performer Yuval Raphael almost win – she came in nail-biting second on the night, pipped to the top slot by Austria’s contestant JJ –...

THE MENSCH AND THE MACHINE

ROxford University Press ICHARD SUSSKIND’S latest book, How To Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed, offers a profound and accessible exploration of artificial intelligence, aiming to demystify AI and focus on its broader implications rather than...

The 1.5 million Jews who fought back

Obsessed

 TRADE UNIONS were forged to fight for the rights and interests of workers and employees. Today, however, too many have been hijacked by activists, obsessed with fringe causes and foreign wars at the expense of the members they were meant to serve....

DOUGLAS MURRAY ON THE BIMAH

+ PRESIDENT TRUMP will not allow nuclear weapons in Iran “on his watch”, according to the British political commentator Douglas Murray. Speaking at a JC event at Western Marble Arch Synagogue in central London last week, Murray addressed an audience...

THE MESSAGE THAT MUST SURVIVE

The fifth Seder question

▶ ANY SHUL-GOER can testify to the adage “Two Jews, three opinions”. Being a broad church is one thing – but try being a broad synagogue. After the Hamas-led attack on Israel, British Jews turned inwards. They leaned on Jewish friends, gave to Jewish...

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MAUREEN

IWOKE UP heiseric, as my dad would have termed it, ie wheezing and full of phlegm, in the knowledge that six men would shortly arrive at the house for a mentoring session on the perfect way to make chicken soup. They had “won” me, at some expense, in...

The first casualty of war is the truth

 THE FIRST casualty of war is famously the truth. This is never more evident than when Israel is forced to defend itself. For 17 months, many journalists breathlessly parroted Hamas casualty figures with less scepticism than a Bank of England report...

This is Britain 2025

▶ LAST WEEK’S decision not to prosecute an east London imam who urged Allah to destroy Jewish homes would be easier to understand if the UK had a strong free speech tradition. But in a country where police knock on newspaper columnists’ doors for...

How Israel could save Europe

+ EUROPE’S DECADES-LONG holiday from history has come to an abrupt end. London, Paris, Berlin and the rest of the continent now have to contemplate the sobering reality of detering and, failing that, fighting Russia – possibly without full US...

Academia crosses a red line

▶ IN HER first major work published in 1951, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt noted that totalitarian rule works best when its subjects are unable to distinguish fact from fiction, or truth from falsehoods. This insight comes to mind as...

The family the world betrayed

BAS MUCH of the world turned away from the traumatic return of the murdered Bibas family last week, Israel began its collective grieving. But ahead of Wednesday’s funeral for Shiri, Ariel and Kfir, one voice touched the hearts of all. The mother of...

Police urged to stop ‘intifada’ rally near three synagogues

BJEWISH RESIDENTS of a north London borough have told the JC they are being driven off the streets by a non-stop Gaza protest that has featured assaults, arrests and enthusiastic support for terrorism. The demonstration, held every Shabbat evening...

Is peace impossible?

BWHEN ISRAEL was established as a state in 1948, its raison d’être was grounded in a singular, moral imperative: that the Jewish people would never again experience the horrors of the Holocaust. This sentiment has been repeated through the years by...

Jewish students reveal scale of hostility on UK campuses

JEWISH STUDENTS at UK universities have faced assaults, bomb threats and “baby killer” slurs amid growing hostility on campus, exclusive JC research has revealed. Forty-five per cent of respondents to an informal poll of more than 200 Jewish students...

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HOME AT LAST! JOY FOR EMILY, DORON AND ROMI… BUT TOUGH TIMES LIE AHEAD FOR US ALL

THEY SAY a picture is worth a thousand words. And in truth, I really don’t need to write this piece at all. All I need to do to make my point is to publish the picture on the right. It says almost everything that needs to be said not just about Hamas,...

Pro-hezbollah teacher vows to make children holy warriors

► A PRO-HEZBOLLAH teacher at an Islamic school located minutes from a London synagogue has vowed to make children holy warriors, the JC can reveal. Photos obtained by this newspaper show schoolgirls at Jaaferiya school in Tooting wearing green...

Surge in British Jews emigrating to Israel

JEWISH EMIGRATION to Israel from Britain last year doubled as antisemitism soars, according to striking new figures obtained by the JC from the Jewish Agency. In the 11 months from January to November 2024, 633 British Jews made aliyah, up 88 per cent...

Move the march away from our synagogues

► COMMUNITY LEADERS and one of the country’s most senior barristers have urged the police to move a major Gaza march away from a London synagogue amid concerns that the Met is failing to protect Jewish life in the city. The Palestine Solidarity...

There’s light! Venue steps in to host rejected Jewish singer

► A POPULAR Charedi musician has praised a London theatre as a beacon to other music venues when it offered to host him after the JC revealed that other London clubs had refused to stage his concerts. Benny Friedman (right), an American rabbi who is...

Police accused of ignoring criminality at JW3 protest

THE METROPOLITAN Police have been accused of failing to combat open criminality during an anti-israel demonstration at JW3 in north London, sparking fresh outrage over how the police has handled Palestine protests. Acting for a local resident, top...

Cambridge academic bragged about relishing Hamas attacks

► A CAMBRIDGE University professor bragged to colleagues that he relished watching videos of Hamas terrorists killing Israeli soldiers. The conversation was reported to this newspaper by a Jewish academic at the same college, who said he had removed...

Shoah survivor son defunds Cambridge over ‘Israel hate’

► A BILLIONAIRE Jewish philanthropist has defunded Cambridge University over what he describes as an “infestation” of anti-israel bias that has taken hold of the university since October 7. Ivan Berkowitz, an American corporate executive, withdrew a...

Lecturer uses Hamas propaganda material to ‘indoctrinate’ students

► A KING’S College London academic used a Hamas propaganda document to encourage her students to sympathise with the terror group, the JC can reveal. Dr Rana Baker, a lecturer on Middle Eastern history, led a seminar earlier this year in which she...

Imam’s ‘destroy Jewish homes’ sermon is not a crime, say police

► THE METROPOLITAN Police has refused to push for the prosecution of an east London imam who led a prayer for the destruction of Jewish homes in a decision that has baffled security experts. Just two weeks after Hamas’s massacre in southern Israel...

Warning of copycat attacks in UK after Amsterdam violence

▶ THE GOVERNMENT’S independent adviser on political violence has warned of copycat attacks in the UK after Israeli football fans were targeted with extreme violence in Amsterdam last week. The danger was particularly acute in Britain, Lord Walney...

Revealed: MPs debate Israel twice as much as they discuss the NHS

MPS HAVE spent more than twice as much parliamentary time debating Israel than the NHS over the past year, the JC can reveal. According to Parliament’s own online records, between October 7 last year and October 18 this year, MPs made 4,369...

Jews being ‘erased’ from culture, warns film festival chief

THE CHIEF executive of UK Jewish Film Festival, which begins next week, has warned of the “erasure of BritishJewish culture from national cultural life” as Jews in the creative industries have faced “deafening silence and avoidance tactics” from...

‘Jewish demons’ singer quits as ‘peace’ festival exposed

A VOCALIST whose songs contain lyrics such as “all the Jews will pay” and “we throw stones, small and big, at the Jewish demons” withdrew from a concert at an Islamic festival at London’s Excel Centre after the JC exposed him. Abdel Fattah Owainat, a...

Police protect Jewish school governor from ‘anti-Zionist’ parent gang

▶ THE HEAD of governors at a Jewish primary school was driven to seek police protection after parents and activists bombarded her with threats over the institution’s perceived connection to Israel, the JC can reveal. Simone Bryant, who resigned from...

British Jews grow closer to Israel amid soaring hatred

BRITISH JEWS have grown closer to Israel and their own community since the October 7 atrocities, a new report has shown. UK Jewish attachment to Israel climbed from 73 per cent in 2022 to 78 per cent this summer, according to a detailed study of the...

יזכור In memoriam

AFTER OCTOBER 7, we produced a front page with a Hebrew headline – “Am Yisrael Chai” – for the first time in our history. A year later, we once again turn to Hebrew for our headline: “yizkor”, meaning literally “may God remember”. Twelve months ago,...