Anti-Semitism
A world without Jewish artists is a wasteland
It’s Christmas, and the far left have a gift for us in their stocking: a cultural boycott of Jews. They…
The mythic mishmash of Wagner’s Ring
Its towering themes of gods, giants, dragons and magic were not purely Germanic in origin, whatever fever-dream they later conjured in Hitler’s brain
Europe’s blind spot over anti-Semitism
You would think that we Europeans might have learned a thing or two about anti-Semitism over the past century or…
Letters: What is the Chancellor trying to achieve?
Zero-sum game Sir: Though troubled by the impact of Budget measures on employers and economic growth, I am more baffled…
The stark, frugal world of Piet Mondrian
In September 1940 the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian arrived in New York, a refugee from war and the London…
An outcast among outcasts: Katerina, by Aharon Appelfeld, reviewed
A peasant girl flees her abusive home, to find happiness working for Jewish families in the lush Carpathian countryside – until anti-Semitic pogroms change everything irrevocably
The roots of anti-Semitism in Europe
The original blood libel, which materialised after the First Crusade in the 11th century, proved a turning point for Jews, as a wave of religious frenzy swept communities away
Between the Iron Lady and the Wedding Cake: conflict in Belle Époque Paris
Two 19th-century buildings perfectly symbolised the growing friction between the capital’s progressives and traditionalists – the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre’s Sacré Coeur
The Dreyfus Affair continues to haunt France to this day
Inspired by the likes of Éric Zemmour, the extreme right is not only reviving reactionary ideas but even questioning the innocence of Captain Dreyfus himself
How on earth does Rishi Sunak keep going?
It’s my birthday this week and the end of my seventh decade (mathematicians will note that this does not make…
Grappling with anti-Semitism at Easter
Grappling with anti-Semitism at Easter
Will Keir Starmer ever learn to loosen up?
The Labour leader comes across as compassionate and hard-working, but so ill at ease in front of the cameras that even his close friends fail to recognise him
Has Germany finally shaken off its dark past?
‘When it comes to helping others, we are the world champions’, one politician declared in 2015. But Merkel’s welcome to immigrants was pragmatic – and anti-Semitism is on the rise again
Why the kids hate Jews
The surest way to work up a crusade in favour of some good cause is to promise people they will…
Who do the police protect?
The function of the police, one might have thought, was to protect the weak against the overbearing and the bullying.…
Chance encounters
The fates of members of a Jewish family depend on accidental meetings, the boarding of a ship or the ring of a phone in this complex fable woven from 20th-century history
A masterpiece: P Word, at Park Theatre, reviewed
Look at this line. ‘I’m 80 years old. I find that unforgivable.’ Could an actor get a laugh on ‘unforgivable’?…
Is T.S. Eliot’s great aura fading?
Cracks are beginning to appear in T.S. Eliot’s once unassailable reputation, says Philip Hensher
Was another tragic Jewish death covered up in France?
Not for the first time in France the death of a Jew is dominating the news, and not for the…
Eric Zemmour isn’t to blame for France’s anti-Semitism crisis
Emmanuel Macron sees anti-Semitism everywhere except where it really lurks. Earlier this month his government accused protesters opposed to the…
The dark story behind Bambi, the book Hitler banned
The extent of Walt Disney’s grasp of the natural world remains unclear. After the Austrian author Felix Salten sold the…
A troubling tide of anti-Semitism is sweeping Britain and France
A day after the Israeli ambassador to Britain, Tzipi Hotovely, was harassed as she left the London School of Economics,…
Louis-Ferdinand Céline was lucky to escape retribution in 1945
They rather like bad boys, the French. Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894-1961) is one, in a tradition that stretches from François Villon…
Fascist, anti-Semite and dupe: the dark side of G.K. Chesterton
The Sins of G.K. Chesterton demands our attention because, as Richard Ingrams notes in his introduction, the literature on this…
