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Jul 15, 2024, 1:24 PM

Religion and ethnicity have re-entered the British political arena

The 2024 General Election will be memorable not least because – owing to the essentially fraudulent electoral system with which the UK is currently burdened – it delivered a huge parliamentary majority (namely two-thirds of the seats) to a party that obtained a mere one...

Mar 28, 2024, 5:06 PM

Open government? Forget it!

Were you invited to the recent (28 February) annual dinner of the Community Security Trust? No? Well, neither was I. But the Prime Minister was, and with good reason. Addressing the assembled multitude – which included a veritable small army of chief constables – our...

Apr 11, 2022, 2:17 PM

The colourful, controversial story of the real-life Fagin

Oliver Twist (Jackie Coogan) held captive, by Fagin (Lon Chaney) and his criminal gang in Oliver Twist (1922 film)

Between 1998 and 2004 I had the honour of serving as an associate editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [DNB]. My job was to suggest new subjects of Jewish interest and to commission authoritative entries for them. The DNB dates from the late...

Feb 11, 2022, 1:00 PM

Labour’s war on the wrong type of Jew

Sir Keir Starmer speaking at LFI. (Credit: Blake Ezra Photography)

Earlier this month it emerged that the Labour Party had abandoned an investigation into the political – or, if you prefer, philosophical – beliefs of an 82-year-old Jewish woman and party member, Diana Neslen. According to the Guardian, which broke this story, Neslen has been...

Feb 1, 2022, 11:35 AM

Fanatical undermining of free speech in the Jewish community

Free speech (Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash)

On 2 December last the Jerusalem Post published an interview with Mr Samuel Hayek, an Anglo-Israeli businessman who is currently head of the UK-based JNF Charitable Trust (JNF-UK). No stranger to controversy, Hayek used the interview as a platform from which to launch an analysis...

Jan 17, 2022, 1:12 PM

UK university scholarships? Not for Jews!

University (Photo by Vasily Koloda on Unsplash) via Jewish News

In recent times the Anglo-Jewish world has been made aware of acute pressures on Jewish students at a range of UK higher-education institutions (HEI’s). Whilst events at the University of Bristol, culminating with the university’s dismissal of loud-mouthed anti-Zionist Dr David Miller, have arguably topped...

Nov 12, 2021, 12:12 PM

Another definition adoption scandal

Antisemitism in the dictionary. Via Jewish News

On 10 November 2021 the Office for Students [OfS], which is the statutory regulator of higher-education institutions [HEIs] in England, announced that according to its inquiries no less than 216 OfS-regulated HEIs had “adopted” the definition of antisemitism agreed upon by the International Holocaust Remembrance...

Sep 24, 2021, 12:35 PM

Government’s misguided agenda on kosher meat labelling leaves a bad taste

Cow diagram for kosher slaughter.

The Right Honourable Victoria Prentis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs [DEFRA], recently launched a consultation document entitled, “Labelling for Animal Welfare.” Waxing lyrical on the benefits that would accrue from reforms to the labelling of food products,...

Aug 3, 2021, 7:28 PM

Cutting the Board of Deputies down to size

Board president Marie van der Zyl (Jewish News)

At its 26 July meeting the Board of Deputies of British Jews voted by the required two-thirds majority to admit to Board membership five Anglo-Jewish representative groups: the Jewish Police Association; the Jewish Small Communities Network; GIFT’ [Give It Forward Today, a charity which provides...

Jul 13, 2021, 9:30 PM

How Jewish was Karl Dönitz’s great wartime adversary, Admiral Sir Max Horton?

Admiral Sir Max Horton (left) while serving in the Baltic.

Earlier this year, on the Welsh island of Anglesey, and as the Jewish News reported, a new plaque was unveiled at the foot of the statue of Admiral Sir Max Horton, who had been born on the island in 1883. The statue dated from 2019....

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About Me

Professor Geoffrey Alderman is an academic, author and journalist

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