The longlist for the 2023 Wingate Literary Prize was revealed this Wednesday, featuring 12 works of fiction and non-fiction. The list was whittled down by an expert judging panel comprising Dr Aviva Dautch, the Chair…
Groucho Marx, the epitome of the fast-talking Jewish funny man, and TS Eliot, lionised as the preeminent modernist poet and never out of fashion, may seem unlikely lunch buddies. It’s well documented, though, that they became pen pals thanks to a fan letter the poet, known for his…
Although award-winning Czech writer Pavel Kohout, an opponent of Soviet aggression, notably during the Prague Spring, is well-known in his homeland and has inspired Tom Stoppard, he is if anything neglected in England. So the UK premiere of this gripping drama about the long…
Upon arrival, the intimacy of a small, packed room is complimented by boisterous Israeli music and women dancing like they’re at a simcha (celebration in Hebrew). There's a central arc draped in red velvet curtains donning the Hebrew characters for 'pickle' (courtesy of designer…
Based on the post-war memoir of Cioma Schönhaus, a Jewish survivor who worked in a Berlin munitions factory during World War II, The Forger is an intriguing deep-dive into what it is to make the best of a frankly terrifying situation. When the film opens in 1942, it is soon…
Watching Orit Fouks Rotem’s uplifting Cinema Sabaya in the week in which Israel elected Benjamin Netanyahu back into power – with the help of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s extreme far-right party – was a bittersweet experience. The film takes place in the working-class city of Hadera in northern…
This year is the 70th anniversary of the signing in 1952 of the hugely significant but little-remembered Luxembourg Agreements between Israel and Germany. To mark the anniversary, this hard-hitting yet even-handed – and deeply compelling – documentary provides vivid insights into…
Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof – arguably a paradigm of quintessential Jewry and, as praised by The New Yorker, “the most powerful movie musical ever made”. Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen…
The dark oppressiveness of 17th century Salem is conveyed the moment you step into the auditorium for the National Theatre’s revival of Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible. On all three sides of the Olivier’s stage, a curtain of water pours in a continuous, heavy stream. On and on it flows…
It was back in summer 2020 when I first got excited about the revival of Good by Glasgow-born Jewish playwright CP Taylor. David Tennant plays the quasi-title role of this story of "how a ‘good’ man gets caught up in the nightmare of the Third Reich”, as Taylor himself described what he…
The beauty of the European premiere of this multi-award-winning Broadway musical is partly down to the intimacy of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre – a small gem in the heart of the West End. For as its modest strapline suggests, the musical adaptation of the highly successful 2007 film…
The a cappella choir Mosaic Voices has released a beautiful and moving video for their new song ‘Omnam Kein’ ('It is indeed true'), to mark the Jewish High Holy day of Yom Kippur. ‘Omnam Kein’ is a key prayer at the Kol Nidre service that takes place on the eve of Yom Kippur…
Jonathan Freedland’s first venture into writing for the stage is billed in the programme not as a play but a ‘theatrical enquiry’: carefully chosen phrasing, to describe a brave undertaking by this seasoned journalist. It was actor Tracy-Ann Oberman (played here by Louisa Clein), billed as…
Martin Sherman’s one-woman play originally premiered in 1999 at the National Theatre with Olympia Dukakis as Rose, looking back to the old century as the new Millennium waited in the wings. Sherman, justly celebrated American Jewish writer and long-time resident of…
There was a delightful low-key hubbub on the coach I boarded in north London, all set to take us to Harwich, Essex, where a new monument to the Kindertransport was to be unveiled. The ‘kinder’ who arrived in this country…