This is the Forward’s coverage of the United Kingdom and British Jews.
United Kingdom
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Fast Forward Exeter Synagogue, One of Britain’s Oldest, Plans 250th Anniversary Renovation
One of Britain’s oldest synagogues will be renovated ahead of its 250th anniversary. The Exeter Synagogue restoration project is slated to begin in March and is expected to end in time for the synagogue’s anniversary ceremony in July, a spokesperson for the synagogue told the BBC. The roof of the synagogue, which is located about…
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Fast Forward Swansea’s Israeli Soccer Star Itay Schechter Skips Training Trip to Dubai
An Israeli soccer player for a British team is sitting out a team visit to Dubai because of tensions between the emirate and Israel. The 25-year-old striker, Itay Schechter, who plays for Swansea City, was prevented from attending the six-day group training session, The Jewish Chronicle reported on Wednesday. The United Arab Emirates does not…
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Opinion Institution of Chief Rabbi Has Outlived Its Usefulness
Finally, after more than a year of deliberation, the United Kingdom has chosen Ephraim Mirvis to be its new chief rabbi, replacing Lord Jonathan Sacks. Actually, much of that sentence isn’t correct. It isn’t “the United Kingdom” that chooses the chief rabbi. For all its pretensions to established status, the chief rabbinate has only a…
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Fast Forward Anti-Semitic Incidents Rise by 5% in Britain
Anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose 5 percent over the previous year, making 2012 the third highest number of incidents on record. The Community Service Trust, British Jewry’s security unit, reported Thursday that there were 640 reported anti-Semitic incidents, compared to 608 in 2011. Some 100 of the incidents were reported as part of a new…
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Opinion British Lawmaker’s Holocaust Day Shame
Prior to Holocaust Memorial Day — officially commemorated across Europe on Sunday — a Book of Commitment was placed in the British House of Commons for Members of Parliament to sign. The purpose of this simple act is to “publicly commit both to remembering the Holocaust and to working towards a future in which prejudice…
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Fast Forward Ruined Synagogue in Britain’s Cornwall, Home to 60 Jews, Won’t Be Sold
City planners in the British county of Cornwall have prevented the sale of an abandoned synagogue in the town of Penzance. The planners in the southern English county last week decided not to authorize a plans to sell the abandoned synagogue, which is now part of a pub named Star Inn, due to noise concerns,…
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Fast Forward Britain Warns Israel on Fading Hopes for Two-State Solution to Mideast Conflict
Britain said on Tuesday prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are almost dead because of expanding Jewish settlement in occupied territory, and warned Israel it was losing international support. Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke as Israelis voted in an election likely to yield a hardline rightist government keener to thicken settlement on…
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Culture Jonathan Sacks Offers Strident Defense of Faith
The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning By Jonathan Sacks Doubleday, 384 pages, $28.95 Jonathan Sacks, whose long tenure as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth expires in March, when he turns 65, has for decades been an inspiration to many Modern Orthodox Jews, who…
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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Film & TV A new documentary challenges stereotypes about Orthodox Jewish women — and their wigs
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Sports NBA coach Steve Kerr: ‘Israel sought revenge for Oct. 7 and now 72,000 Palestinians have been killed’
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News Analysis: As Democrats unite behind Platner, Schumer’s future as leader faces tests
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Fast Forward Pulitzer Prize awarded to Palestinian photographer who captured ‘devastation and starvation in Gaza’
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Fast Forward London police investigating fire at another synagogue, amid string of arsons