Ben Markovits: Meet the Author
Join Booker Prize–shortlisted author Ben Markovits for an extended author Q&A. This session is exclusively for under-30s and is free to access. Buy a copy of The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
Holy Fire: An Artist’s Inner Journey
Artist Carole Berman reflects on the drawings, paintings and sculptures shaped by alchemy, Hebrew and Sufi poetry, Jewish texts, Jungian thought and her own dreams — many created during her 1990s years in Jerusalem, overlooking olive trees and the Old City walls. She joins novelist and lecturer Ariel Kahn to discuss her career and her […]
The Global Yiddish Story
It was the everyday language of most of the world’s Jews for a thousand years, shaping a cultural legacy of remarkable diversity and achievement. The Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts is the first museum devoted entirely to this heritage, with its immersive permanent exhibition Yiddish: A Global Culture at its core. Its chief curator, journalist […]
Good Slut: Michael Gove & Zoe Strimpel
Despite the fear-mongering from across the political spectrum, Zoe Strimpel argues that there has never been a better moment to be a woman. As Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free is published, the author and Sunday Telegraph columnist returns to Jewish Book Week. She joins Spectator editor and Cabinet veteran Michael […]
Israel Behind the Headlines
How is Israel understood abroad, and why does its portrayal so often diverge from the view inside the country itself? Two of Israel’s most incisive commentators, Matti Friedman and Anshel Pfeffer, explore the fault lines between foreign reporting and on-the-ground reality. In conversation with journalist Jenni Fraser, they examine how global coverage of Israel is […]
The Future of Jewish Art
Jewish Renaissance Artists’ Development Scheme has supported six emerging artists over the past year, exploring themes of Jewish heritage, diaspora and creativity. An exhibition showcasing their work, and that of the international Jewish artists who mentored them, will be available for view in Kings Place. JR’s director Aviva Dautch and Professor of Curating, Andrew Renton, […]
Death in a Shallow Pond
Is letting people in the developing world die – when a small donation could save them – morally akin to saving our shoes instead of a drowning child? That was the stark claim of Peter Singer’s 1972 thought experiment. Widely criticised yet hugely influential, it reshaped debates on global poverty and helped inspire the Effective […]
The Work of Writing: Ten New Voices
This year’s cohort of Genesis JLF Emerging Writers describe their projects, processes and writing journeys alongside their mentors, which this year include Thomas Harding, Kate Worsley, Ben Markovits, Adam Kammerling and Stav Poleg. Books being developed in this year’s programme include a history of a Jewish circus family, a graphic memoir of personal scars and […]
Jews: Surprisingly Normal
When people think of Jews today, anxiety and controversy often dominate — but could the missing B-word actually be “boring”? That’s the case Dr Keith Kahn-Harris makes in Everyday Jews, his wry celebration of Jewish mediocrity. In An Unorthodox History, Professor Gavin Schaffer offers a bold account of British Jewish life since 1945, shifting the […]
Can We Still Trust Auntie?
Is the BBC a bundle of contradictions? Criticised for giving Nigel Farage a platform on Question Time yet denounced by the Reform leader as “despicable”; accused of bias by supporters of Israel, Palestine, Labour and the Conservatives alike; admired globally while another Director General departs under a Trump-inspired cloud — what does the future hold for […]
Stand-Up at Jewish Book Week
Kings Place becomes a place of hilarity on the penultimate night of the 75th Jewish Book Week, celebrating London’s vibrant comedy scene. Host Bella Narain welcomes a sparkling line-up: Edinburgh sell-out, JW3 panto star and clown Frankie Thompson (Guardian Top 5 Comedy Shows of the Year); stand-up and online sensation Sarah Roberts (Rolling Stone Rising Star of Comedy); […]
The Future of Liberal Democracy
As political polarisation widens and populist movements gain ground on both sides of the Atlantic, long-standing assumptions about liberal democracy are being tested. This panel brings together Michael Gove, former Cabinet minister and now editor of The Spectator; Richard Hurowitz, publisher of The Octavian Report and author of In the Garden of the Righteous; and […]