The JC - Jewish News, Comment & Culture

Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks alongside Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis during a visit Kenton United Synagogue (Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

3 min read

Tom Brook, the face of BBC's 'Talking Movies'. (Photo courtesty of BBC)

BBC

Nice Jewish boy Tom Brook celebrates 50 years as BBC’s film guru

By Jenni Frazer

4 min read

Immanuel College, in Hertfordshire, is to close at the end of this academic year

Education

EXCLUSIVE: Immanuel College saved from closure thanks to 11th-hour rescue plan

Delight after parents’ action group swoop in with £12.7m funding pledge

By Simon Rocker

2 min read

Eliad Shraga, Lawyer and founder of the Movement for the Quality of Government speaks with Ruby Chen, father of fallen hostage Itay Chen, during a hearing on a petition demanding the formation of a state commission of inquiry into the October 7 massacre at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, April 23, 2026 (Flash90)

October 7

October 7 probe should only happen after war, Israeli government tells High Court

By Melanie Swan

1 min read

The author (third from left) at the March of the Living (Image: courtesy of Lottie Cannon)

By Lottie Cannon

March of the Living: our generation will soon be the last to hear these stories directly from Holocaust survivors

3 min read

Dorothea Myer-Bennett as Ruth Rosenberg and Adrian Lukis as Stephen Crossley (Photo: Manuel Harlan)

theatre

My play about families being ripped apart by Israel and Gaza

4 min read

Netanyahu treated successfully for ‘early stage’ prostate cancer

Poland’s fraught reckoning with its complex past towards Jews takes a dark turn

Israel appoints first envoy to the Christian world after dual scandals

National Holocaust Museum announces major Google partnership

‘No Zionists allowed’: Investigation reveals ‘blatantly racist’ UK rental ads

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Lebanon

Lebanon ceasefire extended for three weeks

US President Trump confirmed the move, despite Hezbollah continuing to launch rockets at northern Israel

By Jacob Jaffa and Melanie Swan

1 min read

US President Trump waves to the media after walking off Air Force One at Miami International Airport on April 11, 2026 (Getty Images)

Anti-Zionism

Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas claims ‘privileged’ Zionists ‘talk like black people during slavery’

The rocker also compared Hamas’ October 7 attack to a list of ‘rebellions’ throughout history

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

US singer/songwriter Julian Casablancas performs on the Coachella stage during the 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, on April 11, 2026 (Getty Images)

Iran

Trump extends Iran ceasefire indefinitely

The US president said the truce would allow Tehran’s ‘fractured’ regime tod evelop a ‘unified proposal’ to end the war

By Melanie Swan

1 min read

US President Trump speaks in the Oval Office after signing an Executive Order April 18, 2026 (Getty Images)

Palestinian Authority

PA made ‘pay-for-slay’ payments months after pledging scheme would end, State Department claims

The filing also accused the PA of ‘inciting and glorifying violence’ and ‘supporting terrorism via educational materials and summer camps’

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

PA President Abbas attends a meeting with Russian President Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on January 22, 2026 (Getty Images)

World news

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot speaks to journalists during his visit to the Faculty of Law and Political Science to meet with students in Montpellier, southern France, on April 17, 2026 (Getty Images)

European Union

EU to impose sanctions on West Bank settlers, says French FM

1 min read

Israel will not be considered for the top prizes at this years Venice Biennale (Picture: Getty)

Art

Venice Biennale jury says Israel will not be considered for top prizes

By Siam Goorwich

1 min read

Members of the 17th Parachute Engineer Regiment carry the coffin of late French Unifil peacekeeper Sergeant-Major Florian Montorio during a tribute ceremony at the military barracks in Montauban, southwestern France, on April 23, 2026 (Getty Images)

Lebanon

Hezbollah attack on Unifil peacekeepers leaves two French soldiers dead

By JC Reporter

1 min read

Hungary

Hungary will arrest Netanyahu if he visits, says new PM

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Gaza

Board of Peace confirms Hamas disarmament talks have stalled

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Lebanon

IDF replaces Jesus statue smashed by soldier in Lebanon

By Jacob Jaffa

1 min read

Lebanon

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C) hosts talks between Lebanese Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (R) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (L), at the State Department on April 14, 2026 in Washington, DC (Getty Images)

Second round of Israel-Lebanon talks set for Washington

The two nations’ ambassadors will seek a path to extending the current 10-day ceasefire

By Melanie Swan

1 min read

Two IDF soldiers killed in Lebanon despite ceasefire IDF reservist killed in southern Lebanon after Hezbollah explosive device detonates

UK News

Board of Deputies

Community to unite at ‘extinguish antisemitism’ march in central London on May 10

The march has been organised as the public reels from a spate of violent attacks on synagogues

By Jamie Shapiro

2 min read

The protest advert (Image: X/ Board of Deputies)

owen jones

Owen Jones shares claim IDF is training dogs to rape Palestinians

Israeli embassy spokesman Alex Gandler called the left-wing commentator a ‘snake oil salesman’

By Jamie Shapiro

1 min read

IDF soldiers with dogs (Image: Getty Images)

Film

Shunned by commercial cinemas, Israeli film festival Seret launches in the Commons

All the movies will be shown in privately hired screening rooms or at JW3

By Nicole Lampert

3 min read

Daniela Grudsky and Danny Cohen at the Seret launch in the Commons

Hatzola ambulance attack

Four in court charged with Hatzola ambulance arson

The four defendants, aged between 17 and 20, are accused of carrying out a ‘targeted attack against the Jewish community’

By Emily Pennink

1 min read

The scene after four Hatzola ambulances were set on fire overnight next to Machzike Hadath Synagogue, on March 23, 2026, in Golders Green (Getty Images)

Opinion

How Labour is helping antisemitism flourish in Britain

The government is casting Israel as a rogue state, fostering a climate where some see Jew hate as a legitimate response to a demonised Israel

By Stephen Pollard

5 min read

Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot lifts the plaque of the Palestinian embassy as First Minister of Scotland John Swinney (r) and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Middle East Hamish Falconer (l) watch during the flag-raising ceremony to mark UK's recognition of a Palestinian state on September 22, 2025 in London (Image: Getty)

By Nick Cohen

Zack Polanski is pandering to the antisemitic mob instead of finding the courage to take it on

We are seeing something very dark, the notion that Jew-hatred is a diabolical Jewish conspiracy, a ruse that cunning Jews play on gentiles to generate sympathy and justify the persecution of legitimate critics of Israel

4 min read

By Jake Wallis Simons

From medieval blood libels to ‘Israeli baby killers’ – how antisemitism endures in Britain

Shame on the media, the international institutions and activists, whether on social media or in the real world, who have so obsessively given new life to this age-old expression of hatred

2 min read

By Tanya Gold

How to talk to antisemites – or, even better, how to ignore them

She was reading The Librarian of Auschwitz because, she said, she ‘loved’ reading about the Holocaust

4 min read

By Stephen Daisley

Jews are the biggest bad-asses to ever walk the Earth

Flipping an old question on its head: why doesn’t everyone love this awesome tribe of innovators, artists, original Bible scribes, survivors, defiers of pharaohs and revivers of a nation?

3 min read

By The JC Leader

Labour is failing to counter Israel-linked antisemitism

The Prime Minister has both the authority and the duty to shape the tone of the national debate to make clear that hatred of the Jewish state and its supporters is unacceptable

3 min read

By Liel Leibovitz

When it comes to Jews, Democrats are ‘kaput’

All but seven of the party’s Senators voted against the sale of bombs and military bulldozers to Israel. Some may gripe about anti-Jewish sentiments being a bipartisan plague. They are not, not by a long shot

3 min read