Read the piece that won JR's inaugural Emerging Journalists Award… MILEI THE MACCABEE: AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE FOR ARGENTINA’S JEWS? Argentina’s president is a passionate philosemite, who looks to the Torah for economic guidance. But his populist politics are dividing the country’s Jewish community, reports Joshua Korber Hoffman Last December, two days after assuming office as Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei attended a Chabad Hanukkah menorah lighting in Buenos Aires. The next day, Argentinian media was full of images of the president wearing a kippah, a rabbi by his side, reaching out to l ..read more

Ahead of announcing the winner of JR's inaugural Emerging Journalists Award, we reveal the piece that took second place in the competition… We were slaves In the run up to Pesach, Arthur Weiss explores the issue of slavery and says it isn’t just a story from the Haggadah, but an epidemic we still face today When arriving at international airports, you’ll see posters about ‘modern slavery’. Jews know all about slavery – every Passover we tell the story of how we were slaves. For most, that’s where the story ends. But not for all Jews. The Bible (Genesis 24) tells how Abraham sent his serva ..read more

Ahead of announcing the winner of JR's inaugural Emerging Journalists Award, we reveal the piece that took third place in the competition… Unified through harmony: How music is bringing Jews together In recent years, 'Hava Nagila' has acted as a metaphor for Jewish unity, says Adam Pogrund, but since the 7 October attacks it has become ever more prescient Last June, The New York Times reported that 'Hava Nagila' had echoed through Monte-Carlo Beach Club at an after party for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Its recital at a plush Monaco club reflects the secularisation and ubiquity of the century-old ..read more

Ahead of announcing the winner of JR's inaugural Emerging Journalists Award, Dani Silver speaks to four of the candidates who received special commendations Last November, JR launched a six-week online journalism programme for aspiring journalists. The series, supported by Jewish News and the Union of Jewish Students, was made up of masterclasses and lectures covering everything from news reporting and arts reviewing, to podcasts and social media. After the 7 October attacks, having journalists who can tell Jewish stories with accuracy, flair and integrity felt more important than ever. The se ..read more

The all-immersive revival of the deservedly popular musical marches on, with a magical mix of new and established cast members As I wrote a year ago, when I first had the unforgettable experience of standing amongst fellow audience members, “‘Immersive’ and ‘moving’ are adjectives that one might use figuratively to describe a theatrical experience. I’m using them literally here.” For my second outing to Nick Hytner’s frankly addictive production, I chose once again to stand so that “as a promenader following the action around the ever-shifting levels on the interconnected hydraulic platforms o ..read more

Apple TV’s flashy fashion drama about legendary haute couture designers during World War II cuts a weak silhouette of a story Viewers are promised a lot in the first 15 minutes of The New Look. It’s 1955. We see glittering shots of twirling models bearing the ‘New Look’ line of the legendary Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) as the fashion maestro holds court at the Sorbonne. Elsewhere, a cigarette-touting Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) hosts a fiery press conference to launch her first collection since the war. When Dior is asked by an inquisitive student why he still made garments for Nazis’ w ..read more

Our 'Urgent Voices' series, in which key jewish cultural figures respond to the continuing crisis following the 7 October attacks, we hear from a handful of Hebrew poets In these difficult times, when war seems to erase all words, a group of contemporary Hebrew poets have found solace in poetry. The artform raises difficult questions that sometimes have no answers and what remains is the intrinsic intent of the questioning. The following poems were written as part of a response to the events of 7 October. Their purpose is to evoke emotion and a fervent hope for peace. Translations by Jacob Eis ..read more

If you’re in New York this spring, don't miss the first US retrospective of Latin American artist Marta Minujín at The Jewish Museum. Here’s everything you need to know about the pop art pioneer before you go Name Marta Minujín. Trademark art? Enormous playpens made up of bright stripey mattresses; ‘happenings’ involving simulated kidnappings; horses with buckets of paint tied to their tails; live chickens; and balloon-popping bodybuilders. At 80 years of age, she’s still rocking platinum blonde hair, fluorescent jumpsuits and aviator sunglasses and says she has no intention of slowing down ..read more

Despite superb acting and Patrick Marber’s nimble direction, Marius von Mayenburg’s unsettling drama about the legacy of the Holocaust proves problematic The title of prominent German Jewish writer Marius von Mayenburg’s 2022 drama is an invented German word suggesting ‘a place of eternal darkness’. If that suggests hell, or at least Hades, think of it more as a rather darker version of Alice’s Wonderland, while perhaps bearing in mind French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s phrase, “hell is other people”. Now, in a translation by Maja Zade, Nachtland brings its dark dilemmas and uneasy rel ..read more

The London dramatist, poet and novelist and has died aged 97 Bernard Kops was a prolific playwright, poet and novelist. He was part of that extraordinary generation of Anglo-Jewish writers born in the 1920s and 30s that included Dannie Abse, Elaine Feinstein, Jack Rosenthal, Bernice Rubens, Harold Pinter and Arnold Wesker. As Mike Leigh once joked in an article for JR, it was a time when all the leading Jewish playwrights were called Harold, Arnold or Bernard. Kops was born on 28 November 1926 in London’s East End, the youngest of eight children of Dutch Jewish immigrants, Joel (a tailor) and ..read more