Jake Wallis Simons is a columnist, broadcaster and foreign correspondent. His latest book, Never Again? How the West Betrayed the Jews and Itself, is out now
My kids have a new friend. If you have teenagers, chances are yours do, too. And it is a friend that, by its own admission, may offer ‘biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading content’. In other words, not a friend at all. The first I heard of this being was when I logged onto Snapchat, a
Social distancing. Test and trace. Face-masks (what was wrong with just ‘masks’? Nobody could ever tell me). Clapping. Substantial meals. Scotch eggs. I think I speak for the majority when I say that those terms evoke both profound relief that it’s all behind us and a sense of unreality. I confess I’m flirting with the
In modern society, we live with a conundrum: there’s no need to endure physical discomfort of any kind, but unless you embrace it via exercise, it comes for you in the form of chronic illness. Good exercise can be very painful, however. In the case of the sport of cycling, agonisingly and unnecessarily so. Put
On a normal morning in Winchester, the streets are crowded with sullen teenagers mooching in sleepy phalanxes to school, scruffy in their school uniforms, a hormonal march of the penguins. My three teenagers are usually among them. Today, however, the city was treated to a different spectacle: hoards of adolescents in hoodies. That’s right, it’s
At the heart of marking the Holocaust lies a conundrum. On the one hand, genocides happen all over the world, from Cambodia to Darfur. Each life lost is an equal horror; there can be no hierarchy of death. On the other, the attempted liquidation of world Jewry during the second world war was an entirely
H and M – no, the other brand – are causing trouble again. ‘Sussexes send out Happy Woke-mas card to friends’, griped the Mail on Sunday. Their crime? Wishing friends a ‘Joyful Holiday Season’ rather than a more traditional Merry Christmas. Given recent controversies, this might seem like a minor offence. But count your blessings.
Something troubling has happened in Israel. The previous government, before it collapsed earlier this month, had been remarkable for its glorious diversity, both political and ethnic. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid shared a rotating prime ministership, presiding over a coalition of parties spanning the entire political spectrum. It was the first administration to include Arab
Can Channel 4 sink any lower? The TV channel has purchased a painting by Adolf Hitler so that a studio audience may decide whether to allow comedian Jimmy Carr to destroy it with a flamethrower. In other words, popular television is trolling the Jewish community, all those around the world who suffered under Nazism and anybody
One of the more bizarre stories to have hit the headlines in recent days was the unsuccessful attempt by police to arrest 20 members of a radical Jewish sect in Mexico. Where to start with a story like this? We could talk about how their jungle base, 11 miles north of Tapachula in Chiapas state,
Reporting from Sri Lanka over the years has left me with mixed memories. On the one hand, there’s the horror and trauma of the Easter Bombings of 2019, which claimed 269 lives. The traumatic scenes at the hospital and morgue have been hard to forget, as have the eeriness of the tourist spots after all
Sunday mornings in the Hampshire countryside remind me of a medieval pageant. While marketeers open their stalls and labradors bark, you see hundreds of jousters in gaudy livery steering their two-wheeled chargers along the lanes, trying not to get knocked off. But while everyone loves a knight, everyone hates a cyclist. Reader, I must confess:
Full marks to Michelle Donelan, the minister for universities, who has announced that the government is severing all ties with the National Union of Students (NUS). In recent years, the NUS has become a disgrace, infested with levels of anti-Israel obsessiveness that would make your eyes water. One story that stands out in my mind
Since the start of the war, many comparisons have been drawn between Israel and Ukraine, not least by President Zelensky. Last week, he said he wanted his country to become a ‘big Israel’ in terms of its focus on security in the years to come. And, of course, in terms of a plucky, advanced democracy
When I sat down with Sir Keir Starmer this week we had unfinished business to discuss. Foremost in my mind was the central political question in Jewish circles these days, particularly on the left: is it safe to vote Labour again? To answer this, I had to ask him about Jeremy Corbyn. When it comes to his
My children have never felt the need to hide their Jewishness. That’s the heart of it, I suppose. A few months ago, a boy picked up his books and declared, ‘I’m not sitting next to the Jewish girl’, before moving to another seat. When she told me about it, my daughter, who is 14, said
Jeremy Corbyn’s question in the House of Commons this week filled me with the relief of catastrophe averted. Addressing Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the former Labour leader and Morning Star columnist said: ‘Would he be prepared to countenance, if the Russians pulled back, any reduction in the Nato presence on the border as well in
Is the Metropolitan Police fit for purpose? The question haunts the minds of many Londoners, particularly women, despite the resignation of Cressida Dick. But it haunts one community in particular: ultra-orthodox Jews. The Met’s list of recent failures is almost as long as it is shameful. Sarah Everard, killed by an officer who kidnapped her
About three minutes’ walk from my house in Winchester is Jewry Street. It runs from the Theatre Royal at one end towards the 13th Century Great Hall at the other. It’s a picturesque throughfare, dotted with cafés, restaurants, churches and a library. But despite its name, it is all but Judenrein. I’ve lived in Winchester
The Holocaust wasn’t about race because Jews are white. This is the through-the-looking-glass position in which progressive America now finds itself, via Whoopi Goldberg. This week, the Sister Act star used her weekly programme The View – which is watched by millions of Americans – to educate the public about the Nazi extermination of Jews.
Is J.K. Rowling anti-Semitic? Yes, I know. It’s the first week of 2022 and this question is being asked, after it was reported that the American comedian Jon Stewart had complained about the portrayal of goblins in the Harry Potter franchise. In a video released online yesterday, Stewart attempted to put the record straight. ‘Let
