Housework, Covid and Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s ‘Maintenance Art’
In my conversations with friends who are fathers I noticed that many of us feel we are the ones devoting most of the time to our children’s distance learning during the Corona pandemic. Very few women agreed with this view. Men have been writing about the wonderful experiences this period introduced in their lives: being at home, getting […]
Wiley Has Made Jews Less Safe
Allegedly someone was allegedly eating an alleged banana seductively. Now if that sentence seemed OK, that’s probably how we got to the point that The Guardian and Sky News both saw fit to describe Wiley’s antisemitic tirade as ‘alleged’. I’m not saying that certain media outlets don’t take antisemitism seriously… actually that’s exactly what I’m […]
The Secret Jewish History of Psycho
Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho was released 60 years ago last month, and it has a secret Jewish history. The film was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch who was a Jewish author. Bloch based his story around the real-life serial killer, Ed Gein, who himself was influenced by Nazi atrocities. He had fashioned household items from the remains of his […]
Kinder Korner: Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham, UK–the Minecraft edition!
Momo Skinazi, 10 years old, recreates the beautiful cathedral synagogue of Birmingham Hebrew Congregation…in Minecraft. Take a tour here!
Grandma in Lockdown*
In the second installment of our new series, ‘You Never Call! You Never Skype!’, a grandmother reflects on her experiences of grandparenting during the pandemic. Thursday 12th March Yesterday was an ordinary Wednesday. I went as usual to my yoga class, did some shopping chores, collected our two oldest grandchildren from the tube station after school, pored over a crossword […]
Clueless at 25: a chance to reflect on Jewish girls in pop culture
In this second piece on the film, Michele Byers reflects on Clueless after 25 years. Full disclosure… I love Clueless. Seriously. I’m not sure if it was Alicia Silverstone’s shiny, perfectly straight hair, her BFF Stacey Dash (those hats!), the witty repartee with her dad (‘I couldn’t be happier than if they were based on real grades!’), her […]
Zooming in The Family
In the first of a new series, ‘You Never Call! You Never Skype!’, Catherine Temma Davidson reflects on parenting during the pandemic. I grew up in America and I now live in London with my English husband and children. Years of analysing my culture from afar has revealed the ways I am – like many Americans – a self-mythologiser. Coming from a Jewish and Greek background, one of my […]
Leaders take a moral stand on the Uyghurs, why not on Palestine?
As more news and leaks come out of China about their treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs, Jewish leaders in the UK have become more and more outspoken on the issue. In the past week, the Board of Deputies has released a statement, as have many community groups and rabbis including the still influential emeritus Chief […]
‘Gentiles, not funny’: Revisiting The O.C.
One of the unexpected silver linings of lockdown is that it has afforded me some much-needed extra down time. So, rather than doing anything productive, I decided to revisit an old favourite from my youth. The O.C., for those who have been living under a rock for the last two decades, is the pinnacle of American teen drama which ran for […]
Shtiebls Sans Frontieres
Sometime ago, before the ‘lockdown’, I was talking to a United Synagogue Rabbi who was bemoaning the lack of younger people in Shul on a Friday night; I guessed by “younger” he meant under 60, but he was thinking about those in their 20s. So, I told him they were all in their shuls. SHULS!? he spluttered with incredulity. Yes, shuls: […]