Teenagers who took on the Nazis
Before writing my book about youngsters involved in anti-Nazi resistance during the Second World War, I had a certain notion about the Holocaust. It was that, in order to save Jewish lives, you had to be a gentile. Because if
A secret Japanese history
Jewish Chronicle, 15 July, 2016 I have just returned from my second trip to Japan (I have family there) and once again, I’ve been amazed by those most impressive of peoples and their glittering, futuristic capital. Tokyo is the city of
Oy vey! Let’s all speak Yiddish
A Jewish friend once told me that, for a goy, I ‘sure use a lot of Yiddish’. ‘Well yes,’ I replied. ‘There’s a good reason for that, bubala.’ And I explained why, although I’d been born and raised a Christian (up
Borderlife
The one fear that haunts Jews more than anything else –even more than the prospect of endless intifadas or of Iran building a nuclear bomb – is of disappearing as a race, a culture and a religion, through the gradual,
Can my dream survive?
Jewish Chronicle, 11 September 2015 How long does it take for a dream to die? Five years? Ten? Fifteen? Well, I have had a certain dream for twenty-five years now, and you know what? After a long quarter-century of disappointments, I
Hungary for success
Jewish Chronicle, 17 July 2015 Four decades ago I read a snippet in a British newspaper which so impressed me that I cut it out and pasted it into my cherished notebook of thought-provoking quotes. It came from a Professor Andre
Loneliest place on earth
Jewish Chronicle, 28 November 2014 This year has been Holocaust Memorial Year in Hungary, the land of my birth. Seventy years ago, in 1944, the Nazis marched in to accomplish what the Hungarian government had signally failed to do: deport to
Book review – Unchosen
Jewish Chronicle, 17 October 2014 Julie Burchill must be the only journalist in this country who is even more vehemently pro-Israel and anti the enemies of Israel than me. In Unchosen she recounts her lifelong, passionate philo-Semitism, and reading this VOLUBLE
Dates – and other ingredients
Jewish Chronicle, 10 October 2014 Do Jewish men make the best lovers? Ha! I knew that would get your attention. But seriously, this is a question which we gentile women occasionally consider whilst having a good old chinwag about the male of the
Reverse Exodus
Jewish Chronicle, 9 August 2013 Daniel Barenboim, celebrated musical genius and Israeli citizen, has admitted that he feels more at ease in Germany than in Israel. He has famously been running the Berlin Staatskapelle orchestra since 1992 and lives in
In Defence of a Maligned State
Jewish Chronicle, 28 September 2012 Hungary, the country of my birth, gets a fairly bad press in the anti-Semitism stakes. Naturally, the rise in recent years of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik Party - blatantly no friend to Jews or Gypsies - hasn’t
The Jewish restaurant yards from Hitler’s ex-HQ
Jewish Chronicle, 7 September, 2012 Of all the cities in which a Holocaust-surviving Jew might choose to open a restaurant - a mere 15 years after the end of the Second World War - you’d think the least appealing option
Soviet shame
Jewish Chronicle, 20 July 2012 Let’s give the Russians a little kicking, shall we? Lord knows they deserve it. Throughout the 20th century they blighted whole populations with the evils of communism, now they poison our world with their chief exports
The Blame Game
Jewish Chronicle, 5 August 2011 So, will the left blame Islam for Breivik's acts? There has been a tidal wave of coverage in the media about Anders Behring Breivik and his murderous rampage in Norway. Was he a solitary monster or part
Halfway House
Jewish Chronicle, 25 March 2011 It's bleak in the halfway house I was in my early twenties when I found out that I was half-Jewish. Until then, as far as I was aware, I was merely a lapsed Catholic who, by the
Changing Names
Jewish Chronicle, 20 August 2010 Names are there to be changed Shakespeare was right about names, Kirk Douglas and the French Jews are just being sentimental By Monica Porter I've just been reading the most recent autobiography of nonagenarian movie star Kirk Douglas (his
My Budapest
Jewish Chronicle, 18 September 2009 Budapest beyond the guidebooks. Writer Monica Porter offers a very personal view of the Hungarian capital Some people love Paris in the springtime. But I’ll take Budapest in the autumn, the perfect time to go. Especially this year:
Dear God
Jewish Chronicle, 23 April 2004 The most fascinating aspect of the ongoing case of the Goldman Sachs PA who embezzled £4 million from her bosses is not that she got away with it for so long – despite her blatantly lavish
Something Uncommon
Jewish Chronicle, 13 September 2002 Something uncommon in common When Nick met Monica… no, they didn’t make a film about it, but the parallels in their lives were dramatic enough. Monica Porter relates how she and her partner discovered their shared, heroic