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Archived Press releases

Wednesday 6 Jan 2010
From Jewish people to Jewish purpose: The new age of social innovation in American Jewish life, and its implications for British Jewry

Steven M Cohen, a leading sociologist of American Jewry, discussed the new age of social innovation in American Jewish life at a seminar for Jewish community professionals in December. The seminar was organized jointly by JPR and JHub, the London-based Jewish Social Action and Innovation Hub.

Professor Cohen described the efflorescence of independent, exciting and creative collective Jewish activity carried out by young people in their 20s and 30s in the United States over the past decade, and explained that such endeavours fitted mainly into five major categories.

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Wednesday 18 Nov 2009
The Israel Survey
The Institute for Jewish Policy Research is about to conduct a national survey of the feelings and attitudes Jews in Britain have about Israel and their links to the country. It is being conducted online by Ipsos MORI in association with the Pears Foundation.
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Tuesday 7 Jul 2009
Professor Jonathan Sarna on the impact of the recession on Jewish communities

Jonathan D Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History and Director of the Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program at Brandeis University, Mass, USA, delivered the JPR William Frankel Memorial Lecture in July in the auditorium of Berwin Leighton Paisner, in association with the Jewish Chronicle. The lecture was chaired by Harold Paisner, Chairman of JPR.

Professor Sarna gave a stark warning that over the coming year, the Jewish community would have to make difficult decisions concerning ‘who will live and who will die’ in Jewish communal life. He predicted that organizations that were weak or undercapitalized before the recession were the least likely to survive.

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Thursday 28 May 2009
JPR launches 'Open Forum' with article by Rabbi David Rosen
Today we launch the first article on JPR's new Open Forum, written by Rabbi David Rosen about Pope Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to the Holy Land
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Friday 22 May 2009
JPR appoints new Director of Social and Demographic Research
JPR is pleased to announce that Dr David Graham has joined the Institute as Director of Social and Demographic Research. Dr Graham is the foremost social demographic expert on the British Jewish community today. His thesis at the University of Oxford focused on Britain’s Jewish population, and he has published widely on this subject.
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Monday 20 Apr 2009
Voices for the Res Publica: Common Good in Europe

We have just launched a new section of our website specially dedicated to our project Voices for the Res Publica: Common Good in Europe. Here you can find all the commissioned papers, programmes and reports which have been produced since this ambitious and wide-reaching project was embarked upon at the end of 2006. Funded by the Ford Foundation, the project is directed by Dr Diana Pinto, an intellectual historian and expert in European civil society living in Paris.

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Tuesday 24 Mar 2009
Israeli Ambassador addresses the changing strategic environment in the Middle East
H.E. Mr Ron Prosor, Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Court of St James, delivered the eighth Morris and Manja Leigh Memorial Lecture on The Changing Strategic Environment in the Middle East and the Danger of Appeasement to a packed JPR audience in March. The lecture was chaired by Mr Howard Leigh.
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Thursday 26 Feb 2009
The Significance of the Israeli Elections for the Peace Process

Just one week after the Israeli elections, on 18 February 2009, Professor David Newman* of the Department of Politics and Government, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, addressed a JPR seminar on the significance of the Israeli elections for the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Professor Newman spoke as formal consultations and negotiations to form the new government were getting underway. He described the two most likely options as equally unstable and undesirable: Benjamin Netanyahu would most probably be asked to put together a narrow, right-wing government, in which any party with the minimum three or more seats would wield disproportionate power; alternatively, Netanyahu and Tzipi Livni would ‘get their act together’ and put together a wide coalition, in which Netanyahu would probably be the Prime Minister. He predicted, however, that this would be a government of paralysis.

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Monday 19 Jan 2009
Is There a Global Jewish Politics?

A fluid pattern of independent action, coordination, competition or conflict emerges in JPR’s new policy debate paper

In a new policy debate paper published this week by JPR, which arose out of a seminar held at JPR last year, author Michael Galchinsky states that ‘when it comes to global Jewish politics there is an alphabet soup of organizations and individuals participating in the decision-making process.’ Jewish associations are essentially voluntary, he says. Their decision-making is neither top-down nor a result of a participatory bottom-up process. On the political level each brings its own constituency and mission to the table.

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Tuesday 13 Jan 2009
JPR welcomes Jonathan Boyd as Research Fellow
JPR is pleased to announce the appointment of Jonathan Boyd, who joined the Institute in January 2009 as Research Fellow. He will be working on three major projects.
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Thursday 18 Dec 2008
The Future for Jews in Multicultural Europe

This was the subject of a panel discussion held in November within the framework of a two-day workshop, which was organized jointly by JPR and the Centre for the Study of European Politics and Society/Ben Gurion University. The discussion featured Dr Dov H Maimon, Fellow, Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, Jerusalem; Professor Dominique Moïsi, Senior Adviser, Institut Français des Relations Internationales, Paris; Dr Joel Peters, Academic Adviser, CSEPS, Ben Gurion University and Göran Rosenberg, columnist and author, Stockholm. The event was chaired by JPR Director, Antony Lerman.

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Wednesday 3 Dec 2008
JPR appoints Harold Paisner as Chairman

Harold Paisner, Senior Partner of the City of London law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, has been appointed as the new Chairman of JPR. He replaces Peter L Levy OBE who is stepping down after 16 years as lay head of the independent policy think tank.

Mr Paisner has served on the Board of JPR for 11 years. He is UK National President of the Union Internationale des Avocats, a member of the Paris Bar and a Governor of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Mr Levy warmly welcomed Harold Paisner’s appointment: ‘Harold has been involved in the Jewish community in the UK over many years. He knows continental Europe and the United States extremely well and has very close connections with, and a profound commitment to, Israel. I’m sure that all of this, plus his worldwide network of contacts, means that JPR will not only be in safe hands, but will be in excellent shape to meet the challenges of the future.’

Mr Levy was responsible for repositioning JPR as an independent institution. In 1996 he presided over the transformation of the Institute of Jewish Affairs (IJA) to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. At the end of the 1990s Mr Levy created a broad coalition of philanthropists and communal agencies to support JPR’s groundbreaking social research project Long-Term Planning for British Jewry. More recently, he oversaw JPR’s relocation two months ago from its Wimpole Street premises to its new modern offices in Market Place, London W1.

Mr Paisner paid tribute to his predecessor, praising his commitment and enormous contribution to the Institute over many years. ‘Peter has been fundamental to JPR’s success. I’m delighted that he will remain on the JPR Board in the role of Vice-President. Our close colleague Lord Haskel will continue in his crucial role as JPR President.’

In a further move to prepare JPR for the future, its Director, Antony Lerman, who was close to retirement, has stepped down. ‘I returned for a second stint as JPR’s director almost 3 years ago to reconstruct the organization, develop a new Europe-oriented policy research programme and reposition JPR to face the difficult challenges of the 21st century. The Board and I feel I’ve achieved that goal and we think it’s a good time to prepare the way for a successor, who can continue the renewal process in tandem with Harold Paisner, the new Chairman.’

The outgoing and incoming Chairmen said: ‘We’re deeply grateful to Tony for all he has done for JPR, not only since he was re-appointed Director in 2006, but going back to when he joined IJA as a researcher in 1979. As the professional head of JPR he has led the organization with great distinction and vision. We’re delighted that he will continue to be available to advise JPR on its future plans.’ Mr Lerman plans to do more writing and work on some personal projects.

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Tuesday 11 Nov 2008
The Jewish Future in Scotland: Engaging with the Scottish Government

On 27 October JPR Director Tony Lerman met with officials from the Scottish Government in Glasgow. The discussions covered a wide variety of subjects including antisemitism, Holocaust education, the impact of global events on the Scottish Jewish community and the interaction between European governments and Jewish communities throughout Europe.

The meeting was organized by the Glasgow Jewish Educational Forum (GJEF), which runs a programme designed to bring some of Britain’s leading Jewish academics and thinkers to Scotland to promote discussion and debate.

As part of that programme, Tony Lerman gave a lecture on 26 October to the GJEF entitled ‘Do We Get the Leaders We Deserve? Representation and Responsibility in a Time of Crisis’.

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Wednesday 8 Oct 2008
JPR on the Move

JPR has just moved to new premises.

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Monday 28 Jul 2008
Is anti-Zionism a cover-up for anti-Semitism?

Read articles arguing for and against written by Ben Cohen, Associate Director, Department of Anti-Semitism and Extremism, American Jewish Committee and Antony Lerman, JPR Director. The articles were first published in CQ Global Researcher in June 2008.

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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
JPR Dinner in honour of Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

On 4 June 2008 JPR held a dinner at Glaziers Hall, London Bridge, in honour of The Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. Lord Haskel, JPR President, presented the Archbishop with the Golden Jubilee Arward in recognition of his outstanding contribution to public life. The Archbishop delivered an address on The Role of Religion in Politics Today which you can read here in full www.archbishopofyork.org/1841.

Previous recipients of the JPR Golden Jubilee Award have included Lord Goodman,Dr Henry Kissinger, His Royal Highness Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan, William Frankel CBE, Lord Woolf and James Wolfensohn KBE.

To read all the media coverage of this event, please click here and scroll down to the 'Media coverage of JPR' section.
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Wednesday 7 May 2008
A Personal appreciation of William Frankel CBE by Tony Lerman

With the death of William Frankel CBE, JPR has lost a true friend who had an immeasurable influence on the Institute’s development. Rightly known for being an outstanding and crusading editor of the Jewish Chronicle, after stepping down from the editorship in 1968 he favoured a number of Jewish communal institutions with his time and close support. One of these was JPR’s predecessor organization, the Institute of Jewish Affairs (IJA). That close connection continued when the IJA became the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and lasted until his untimely death in April 2008.

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Thursday 24 Apr 2008
William Frankel CBE, Vice-President of JPR, dies aged 91

William Frankel was a central figure in JPR’s lay leadership and was Chairman of JPR’s predecessor, the Institute of Jewish Affairs. He played a key part in creating the conditions for JPR to become an independent think tank. Since it was established in 1996 he remained fully involved in helping guide JPR and securing its financial future. He will be sorely missed by all JPR Board members and staff.

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Tuesday 22 Apr 2008
Is Europe good for the Jews? Jews and the pluralist tradition in historical perspective

Is Europe today uniquely favourable or uniquely threatening to Jews? This was the question examined by a seminar held in April to launch Dr Steven Beller’s JPR policy debate paper, entitled Is Europe good for the Jews? Jews and the pluralist tradition in historical perspective. At the seminar Dr Beller presented some of the arguments he outlined in his paper, and a response was given by Dr Diana Pinto. The discussion was chaired by Antony Lerman, JPR’s Executive Director. The seminar was attended by a wide range of academics, Jewish communal professionals and rabbis.

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Monday 3 Mar 2008
Making More of Europe
A JPR policy seminar was held in February to explore the problems of developing European Jewish advocacy, cooperation and effective representation of European Jewish interests. Forty people attended, representing many of the organisations involved in this work in Europe: B’nai B’rith, the European Council of Jewish Communities, the American Jewish Joint Distribution, the Anglo-Jewish Association.

read more
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Monday 25 Feb 2008
Voices for the Res Publica: a progress report
Last winter JPR launched a new pan-European project, funded by the Ford Foundation, entitled Rediscovering the European Common Good. This ambitious and wide-reaching project is directed by Dr Diana Pinto, an intellectual historian and expert in European civil society living in Paris. The project addresses one of Europe’s most pressing political and social problems: the loss of a sense of the commonweal in our pluralist democracies.
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Wednesday 20 Feb 2008
'Voting rights in Israel for Diaspora Jews' proposal criticised as 'fundamentally retrogressive' by JPR

Recent remarks by the Russian oligarch Moshe Kantor, speaking in his capacity as President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), that all Diaspora Jews should have the right to vote in Israeli elections, are described as ‘fundamentally retrogressive’ in a Policy Briefing paper from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), the independent think tank working on policy ideas for an inclusive Europe.

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Monday 21 Jan 2008
JPR Project on Child Poverty in British Jewry: A Mapping Project to Improve Community Services
A discussion paper produced in 2006 by JPR, in conjunction with the Shoresh Trust, provided clear evidence of poverty and deprivation among significant numbers of Jewish children in all sectors of the Jewish community, arising from divorce, single-parenthood, bereavement, redundancy or chronic disability
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Thursday 10 Jan 2008
Rediscovering the European Common Good - a progress report

Last winter JPR launched a new pan-European project, funded by the Ford Foundation, entitled Rediscovering the European Common Good. This ambitious and wide-reaching project is directed by Dr Diana Pinto, an intellectual historian and expert in European civil society living in Paris. The project addresses one of Europe’s most pressing political and social problems: the loss of a sense of the commonweal in our pluralist democracies. At stake is the building of new overarching social and political frameworks, which would respect group identities while giving precedence to the common good - in effect, a new res publica, a reinvigorated sense of the common good. (To read the Manifesto, please click here.)

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Monday 7 Jan 2008
The Science Delusion

The Science Delusion was the title chosen by Lord Winston, Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College and author and broadcaster, who delivered the Morris and Manja Leigh Memorial Lecture in December 2007. The lecture was chaired by JPR Chairman Peter L Levy OBE.

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Tuesday 18 Dec 2007
Jews and Other Europeans - Old and New

This was the title of the Malcolm Hay of Seaton Memorial Lecture which was delivered by Professor Zygmunt Bauman in December 2007 and held under the joint auspices of JPR and the University of Aberdeen. Professor Emeritus of the Universities of Leeds and Warsaw, Zygmunt Bauman is often described as the world’s foremost sociologist of post-modernity. His books include Modernity and the Holocaust, Postmodern Ethics, Globalization: the Human Consequences and Society under Siege. He was awarded the Amalfi European Prize in 1990 and the Adorno Prize in 1998. The lecture was chaired by Professor Christopher Fynsk, Director of the Centre of Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen.

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Thursday 13 Dec 2007
Antisemitism and Zionism: A complex (fruitful?) relationship
This was the title of a paper-in-process presented by Professor Idith Zertal at a JPR policy seminar in October 2007. Present at the conference were a group of scholars, intellectuals and journalists. The seminar was chaired by JPR Executive Director, Antony Lerman.
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Tuesday 2 Oct 2007
Shylock on the mind: Jewish versus Christian Readings of The Merchant of Venice

Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, presented a paper at a seminar organised jointly by JPR and the European Association for Jewish Culture in October on The Merchant of Venice in connection with a new production of the play directed by Julia Pascal at the Arcola Theatre, London. The seminar was chaired by Julia Pascal.

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Monday 16 Jul 2007
The Impact of Religion on Europe’s Future

Claims that projected demographic trends could lead to growing religiosity in Western Europe have been made in a paper published in July by JPR entitled ‘Sacralization by Stealth: demography, religion and politics in Europe’ by Dr Eric Kaufmann, Reader in Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck, University of London. Dr Kaufmann explores the main engines of religious population growth, namely, religious immigration and higher fertility, and suggests a number of ways in which this demographic change may manifest itself politically.

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Friday 18 May 2007
New study of British Jews ‘demolishes popular myths'

‘Our understanding of the British Jewish population has been revolutionized’, conclude the authors of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research’s (JPR) comprehensive analysis of the data on Jews derived from answers to the first ever voluntary question on religion in the 2001 Census. ‘The results have been truly fascinating and mould-breaking.’

The Report, Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census, published today by JPR, lays bare the complexity of the Jewish population and demolishes several popular myths: ‘the Jewish nuclear family, the homogenous Jewish household, the Jewish housewife, the married Jewish couple or the universally successful and prosperous citizen.’

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Friday 20 Apr 2007
Who speaks for us? Representing the diversity of opinion in Britain’s multicultural society

The question of ‘Who speaks for minority groups?’ has become a hot topic. The government’s policy of giving preferential access to certain minority community organizations has come under fire. In recent years a growing number of new groups and networks have been established to give expression to the diversity of voices among Britain’s minorities. JPR held a policy seminar in March 2007 in the framework of its programme ‘Living Together: A New Approach to Building Civil Society,’ to explore the significance of this trend and to ask what it meant for the way communities represent themselves in British society and how it should affect government policy towards minority communities. The seminar was chaired by Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland. The panellists were Sunny Hundal, founder of the New Generation Network and editor of Asians in Media; Tufyal Choudhury from Durham University’s Department of Law; Rokhsana Fiaz, Founding Director of The Change Institute, and Professor Susie Orbach, psychoanalyst, author and member of Independent Jewish Voices.

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Wednesday 11 Apr 2007
Demos and JPR co-sponsor major European 'Shared Belonging' project

Demos, the UK’s most influential think-tank, has teamed up with JPR (Institute for Jewish Policy Research), Europe’s leading Jewish think tank, on a major pan-European project which aims to recreate a sense of shared belonging in Europe’s pluralist democracies.

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Wednesday 7 Mar 2007
What future for multiculturalism?
In February 2007 JPR held a policy seminar with Tariq Modood, founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, and Professor of Sociology, Politics and Public Policy at the University of Bristol, a leading authority on multiculturalism, and David Goodhart, the editor of Prospect magazine, whose essay Too Diverse? launched a heated debate on the failings of multiculturalism in the UK.
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Tuesday 6 Feb 2007
Welcome to the new JPR web site
Our new website (launched February 2007) aims to deliver easily accessible information about JPR’s policy work, meetings, seminars, lectures, conferences and publications.
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Friday 2 Feb 2007
JPR's Board argues case for independent thinking
JPR's chairman, Peter L Levy OBE argues the case for independent thinking in a letter to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle.
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Monday 15 Jan 2007
Manifesto

Voices for the Res Publica

The Common Good in Europe

A pan-European project

One of Europe’s most pressing problems today is a loss of a sense of the commonweal in our pluralist democracies. Religious and ethnic groups, whether majorities or minorities, are growing apart from each other. This is due to a combination of two factors: the weakening of the post-war ideal of reconciliation, integration and open borders, and the upsurge of xenophobia, racism, antisemitism and cultural intolerance.

As a result, feelings of shared belonging have been eroded and new types of tribalisms are emerging. The current multicultural and integrationist models of democratic life do not seem able to contain these tendencies.

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Sunday 30 Apr 2006
Antony Lerman returns to lead JPR in new direction
JPR’s founding director, Antony Lerman, has returned to JPR as Executive Director.
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Archived media coverage

Friday 15 Jan 2010
So, what do you really think about Israel?

British Jews are great supporters of the Jewish state aren’t they? We are about to find out

By Simon Rocker, 15 January 2010

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Tuesday 12 Jan 2010
What turns young American Jews on

By Simon Rocker

Reasons to be cheerful: leading social scientist Steven Cohen highlighted some of the positive trends within American Jewry during a recent visit to London. You can now read a report of his observations here.

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Friday 8 Jan 2010
JPR says Boyd is the new chief

By Simon Rocker, 8 January 2010

Jonathan Boyd, the acting director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research since April, has been confirmed as its executive director.

Mr Boyd, who has previously worked with the UJIA and the Joint Distribution Committee’s International Centre for Community Development, joined the institute a year ago as a research fellow.

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Thursday 7 Jan 2010
Gaza questioned in Israel poll

By Simon Rocker, January 7, 2010

The most detailed survey of what British Jews think of Israel was launched today by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

Conducted by Ipsos Mori and commissioned by the Pears Foundation, it consists of a questionnaire that takes about 15 minutes to complete online.

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Friday 1 Jan 2010
Things are better, but not by much

By Simon Rocker

When the Institute for Jewish Policy Research appointed a commission to investigate who speaks for British Jews, “the nervousness in some establishment bodies was palpable”, recalled JPR’s then director Antony Lerman.

The very commission was seen as a challenge to venerable institutions such as the Board of Deputies and the Chief Rabbinate. The report it issued in 2000, A Community of Communities, duly reflected discontent.

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Friday 1 Jan 2010
So is your voice being heard yet?

by Winston Pickett

Ten years ago, a controversial report called for changes in the way the views of the community are represented to the outside world. What has changed over those years?

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Friday 1 Jan 2010
Grassroots left out in the cold

by Simon Rocker

If you were to ask, are British Jews better represented than they were a decade ago, then it would all depend on what you meant by “better”.

There is a difference between whether organisations are more effective in getting their message across, than whether collectively the views of British Jews are being more fairly represented by organisations that claim to speak for them.

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Friday 20 Nov 2009
New survey: do you fly the flag for Israel?

The first full national survey on how British Jews feel about Israel is to be carried out early next year.

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Friday 20 Nov 2009
There's no need for the gloom
Yes, Anglo Jewry has political problems. But we live vibrant lives.
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Wednesday 18 Nov 2009
Antisemitism and the reported world
Channel 4's Dispatches on Britain's Israel lobby perpetuated the same old antisemitic myth – and that has effects in the real world. To read Jonathan Boyd's article on the Comment is Free website click here.
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Friday 9 Oct 2009
Givers happily take the bait

by Alex Kasriel

Although Jews are supposed to give at least one-tenth of their income to charity, Institute of Jewish Policy Research figures suggest that 20-to-30-somethings are less likely to do so than their parents.

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Friday 28 Aug 2009
My way, the Sinatra style of Judaism
Grassroots Jews may be a fringe group now, but their concept has huge implications for the future
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Friday 24 Jul 2009
Communal life after the recession
We need new ideas — and ideals — to meet radical change in the Jewish world
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Friday 10 Jul 2009
Professor: diaspora in danger

by James Martin

Diaspora Jews are under increasing threat from assimilation due to a lack of “mission causes”, according to an international expert on Jewish history.

Brandeis University’s Professor Jonathan Sarna made the statement while delivering the first William Frankel memorial lecture last week, in memory of the former JC editor and chairman, who died last April.

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Friday 5 Jun 2009
Stability ‘not the end of the story’ for community

by Simon Yaffe

Britain's charedi community is counter-acting any decline in numbers within the rest of the Jewish population. Demographics expert Dr David Graham told the Jewish Telegraph that this is unusual in the Diaspora. The 34-year-old was recently appointed director of social and demographic research at London’s Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

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Tuesday 2 Jun 2009
David Graham
David Graham has joined the Institute for Jewish Policy Research as director of social and demographic research. Graham joins from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, where he was a senior research officer for two and a half years.
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Friday 22 May 2009
Think-tank: new UK focus

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research has announced a change of direction with a key new appointment.

David Graham, who has worked on demographic surveys for the Board of Deputies, will be the new director of social and demographic research. He will be supported by a new advisory board, chaired by Professor Steve Miller, an expert on research into Jewish communities.

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Friday 9 Jan 2009
It's hard to be a Jew, especially in a recession

Communal bodies, families and individuals are facing stark choices if Jewish life is to be maintained

by Simon Rocker

The harsh winds of recession have started to make an impact on the Jewish community. Donors have cut back pledges, synagogue bodies are laying off staff and one institution has already gone to the wall. MST College, in North-West London, which specialised in teacher training for strictly Orthodox schools, closed at the end of last month.

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Friday 9 Jan 2009
New JPR Fellow

A new research fellow is joining the Institute for Jewish Policy Research to head its investigation into Jewish child poverty in the UK.

Jonathan Boyd, a former director of research and development at the UJIA and for the past two years director of operations for the Joint’s International Centre for Community Development, will take up his position this month.

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Friday 12 Sep 2008
Jews attacking Jews

By Antony Lerman

When I first started professionally monitoring and studying anti-Semitism almost 30 years ago, there was, broadly speaking, a shared understanding of what it was. True, historians differed over a precise definition - quite understandably, given that the term was coined only in the 1870s, and was then used to describe varieties of Jew-hatred going back 2,000 years. There was also a degree of political manipulation of the phenomenon, with both the right and the left blaming each other for causing it.

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Friday 13 Jun 2008
Archbishop honoured at a JPR dinner
One of the UK’s leading Christian personalities has been honoured by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research for his contribution to public life.

The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, received JPR’s Golden Jubilee award at a dinner in his honour at Glaziers Hall in London last Wednesday.

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Monday 9 Jun 2008
The Flying Archbishop
http://eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/2535/The_Flying_Archbishop.html
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
Archbishop of York criticises government at JPR dinner
The Archbishop of York has launched a powerful attack on the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, accusing it of sacrificing liberty for misguided notions of equality.
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
Archbishop Sentamu says Labour's obsession with human rights is 'threat to freedom'
His condemnation of human rights without religion, and his decision to point the finger at Labour, came in an address given to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
Archbishop of York blames labour government for selfish society
In a speech given at the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, he said: "One of the many mantras of the New Labour party of a decade ago was that of 'rights and responsibilities' - the idea that along with entitlement comes obligation.
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
Sentamu hammers Brown's Labour government
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, spoke last night at a dinner given by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research at the Glaziers' Hall in the City of London.
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
'Rampant consumerism' criticised
The Archbishop of York has blamed the Labour government for allowing what he calls "rampant consumerism" to control Britain's moral values.
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Thursday 5 Jun 2008
Civil liberties 'facing threat'

Civil liberties are under threat from Government bureaucracy and "petty-mindedness", the Archbishop of York has warned. In a speech delivered to the Institute of Jewish Policy Research in London, Dr John Sentamu said red tape and diktats in politics were threatening personal freedom.

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Friday 8 Feb 2008
High unemployment
Further to your article (How to survive a recession, February 1), I am writing to highlight quite how deep the problem of unemployment is within our community. The report published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in May 2007 shows there were over 6,000 Jewish people in the UK out of work, 4,000 of whom live in London. Over 1,000 of those have graduated from university. At a time when the City is feeling the pinch of gloomy economic forecasts, this will inevitably have a greater impact on the community.

Trisha Ward, Chairman, Employment Resource Centre, East End Road, London N2
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Friday 18 Jan 2008
Lost Charedi boys
Our Jewish schools come out with flying colours from the Government’s latest educational league tables. But buried away in the statistics is disturbing evidence that many boys in the strictly Orthodox community are being systematically undereducated in secular studies.
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Friday 18 Jan 2008
Schools do well - but some boys are left out

New figures released by the government suggest that many boys in parts of Britain’s Charedi communities are leaving school before the age of 15. While pupils in Charedi girls’ schools are often performing well at GCSE, according to the latest secondary school tables from the Department for Children, Schools and Families, many of their male equivalents appear not even to be taking the exams.

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Friday 28 Dec 2007
'Deprived' Charedim get MPs' help
DIANE Abbott, MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, has filed an early day motion (EDM) calling for more research by the government into what she calls the Hackney Jewish community’s “hidden deprivation”.

Her action, which has the backing of the Respect MP George Galloway, follows a report on findings from the 2001 Census on the Jewish population in Britain. It was the first time the census included a question on religion.

The report, published in May by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, found that Jews living in Hackney, East London, were experiencing higher levels of social deprivation than Jews in other parts of the country.

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Friday 26 Oct 2007
Chief's recipe to heal Britain

By Bernard Josephs and Leon Symons

A new book by Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks in which he rejects multiculturalism and assimilation, saying they have damaged British society, has been given a mixed reception by human-rights activists and anti-racists.

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Friday 26 Oct 2007
School absences
Teachers, governors and parents will be deeply concerned at a new report that calls into question the future of Jewish education and, by implication, the future of the community. The report, produced by the newly formed Commission on Jewish Schools, with data produced by the Board of Deputies’ research department, predicts a surplus of close to 50 per cent in Jewish primary- and secondary-school places within a decade. This is not the first time such fears have been posited: the Institute for Jewish Policy Research also predicted a massive surplus five years ago.
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Monday 11 Jun 2007
In & around

LONDON: A new report that “destroys the illusion of British Jewish uniformity” was published May 18 by Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a London-based think tank.

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Friday 25 May 2007
Britain’s Jewish families look more unconventional

by Jonny Paul

A report released last week provides a comprehensive insight into the British Jewish community and reveals that, even more than for their fellow Britons, the nuclear family is no longer a normative model for U.K. Jews.

The report, “Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census,” is based on a comprehensive analysis of responses from the first (voluntary) census question on religion, asked in 2001’s national survey. It was published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London, with help from the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

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Tuesday 22 May 2007
Report Exaggerates Importance of Ethnicity

by M Stein

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) published last week its detailed analysis of the results of the 2001 Census. This fascinating document entitled “Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census” takes the information gathered in the census, and uses the information based on the only voluntary question in the entire form, “What is your religion?” combined with the response to “What is your ethnic group?” to provide an insight into the Jewish community in the UK today.

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Tuesday 22 May 2007
Opinion

The report published last week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research on the Jewish community in the UK was interesting in many ways. However, it contains several hashkafic flaws, some of which it acknowledges itself. The census offered the opportunity to describe oneself as religiously or ethnically Jewish, or both. According to the census, 270,499 people described themselves of the members of their household as Jewish in answer to the religion question. Whilst 97% of British Jews described themselves as ethnically “white”, only a tiny minority – less than one percent – described themselves as ethnically, but not religiously, Jewish.

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Sunday 20 May 2007
New study of British Jews ‘demolishes popular myths’
LONDON (EJP)---A new report demolishes several popular “myths and stereotypes” describing British Jews as prosperous, successful, and homogenous, living in a few boroughs in London and Manchester.

The Report, entitled “Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census’’ was published on Friday by the Jewish Policy Research (JPR), a London-based think tank working for an inclusive Europe.

The report’s authors said that the study had “revolutionised” their understanding of British Jewry.

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Saturday 19 May 2007
Myth of the ghetto: report reveals UK's Jewish diaspora

by Kim Sengupta and Christina Bucher

A new report into Britain's Jewish population has found that the standard image of a homogeneous group concentrated in a few inner-city boroughs is grossly out of date.

The study finds, instead, that the community is increasingly split between the secular, often marrying into other religions, and the followers of orthodoxy.

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Friday 18 May 2007
How lifestyles are rapidly changing for British Jews

The stereotype of a prosperous, homogenous Jewish community concentrated in a few boroughs in London and Manchester is demolished as “myth” in a new report.

The study, published today, is expected to force a radical rethink about the nature of Britain’s 270,000-strong Jewish community. It depicts a future for British Judaism dominated by the strictly Orthodox.

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Friday 18 May 2007
The new ‘Jewish’ family: intermarried or cohabiting

by Simon Rocker

The traditional Jewish family is becoming less commonplace because of intermarriage, cohabitation and a growing singles population, according to a report published today by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR).

Based on the results of the 2001 Census, it indicates that up to three in 10 married or cohabiting Jews have a non-Jewish part....

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Friday 18 May 2007
The Jewish family is dead

by David Graham

In Britain, there is a quiet revolution going on in Jewish homes, one that has potentially profound implications for the future of the community as we know it. What is more, this revolution has hardly drawn any comment at all. It is to do with “household structure”, a term which refers to the analysis of people’s living arrangements. Only data from....

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Thursday 17 May 2007
Nuclear family no longer the norm for UK Jews
A report released Thursday provides a comprehensive insight into the British Jewish community and reveals that, even more than for their fellow Britons, the nuclear family is no longer a normative model for UK Jews.

The report, "Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census," is based on a comprehensive analysis of responses from the first ever (voluntary) census question on religion, asked in 2001's national survey. It was published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London, with help from the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

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Friday 27 Apr 2007
JPR joins Demos
One of Britain's top think-tanks has joined forces with the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) on a project to explore ideas of social harmony in contemporary Europe. Demos, which focuses on 'everyday democracy', is co-sponsoring the British leg of a series of round-table discussions among academics and opinion-formers being convened by the JPR in ten European countries.
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Friday 2 Mar 2007
We did listen
Antony Lerman contends that “little or no concerted, cooperative action was taken” after JPR’s Facing the Future report on the care of older people came out five years ago (Letters, February 23).

The facts are very different. This seminal piece of research acted as a catalyst for the charities, particularly in the welfare sector, to start talking to each other more than ever before.
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Friday 23 Feb 2007
Why didn't we listen to JPR?
The Jewish Chronicle published the following letter, entitled 'Why didn't we listen to JPR?' by Antony Lerman, in response to their report on elderly care provision (February 16).
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Friday 9 Feb 2007
Lerman Azulay
I am an Israeli, a Zionist and a new member of the JPR board. I made aliyah in 1954 and served Israel for 33 years in the military, defence and security establishments. My children live in Israel and serve in the IDF.
I have read the articles and letters about Tony Lerman’s views. Frankly, I am more concerned about all those “good” Jews who are burying their heads in the sand. Not one has said anything constructive. With all due respect to Lord Kalms and others, I don’t see how they have contributed anything to Israel by walking out on JPR.

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Friday 9 Feb 2007
Contributors to debate...
Brian Klug “As the situation in the Middle East deteriorates yearly, more and more Jews watch with dismay from afar. Dismay turns to anguish when innocent civilians — Palestinians and Israelis — suffer injury and death because of the continuing conflict. No one has the authority to speak for the Jewish people. Yet during Israel’s war with Lebanon last summer, Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, told an American audience: “I believe that this is a war that is fought by all the Jews…”
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Tuesday 6 Feb 2007
Reflecting the reality of Jewish diversity
"Who speaks for minority groups?" is one of the hottest issues in Britain today. The government has acknowledged this, and made it a matter of national importance by trying to fight Islamist extremism through Muslim community bodies it prioritises as spokespersons for the Muslim community. But this policy of squeezing minority groups into "representative" boxes is facing a growing challenge. Minorities are increasingly asserting their own internal diversity and refusing to line up behind establishment or government-favoured organisations.
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Monday 5 Feb 2007
Prominent Jews call for open debate on Israel
“A group of prominent British Jews will today declare independence from the country's Jewish establishment, arguing that it puts support for Israel above the human rights of Palestinians.”
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Sunday 4 Feb 2007
Furore over Jewish critics' challenge to state of Israel
"A major battle has erupted in Jewish communities on both sides of the Atlantic over accusations that left-wing Jews are fuelling anti-Semitism by challenging the existence of Israel."
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Sunday 4 Feb 2007
Lerman: your views
The Jewish Chronicle publishes a selection of letters about the Antony Lerman controversy.
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Friday 26 Jan 2007
Pressure grows on Lerman
“Antony Lerman, the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy research (JPR), was at the centre of a firestorm of criticism this week over his views on Israel and his controversial participation in the Mayor of London's conference last Shabbat.”
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Friday 26 Jan 2007
Why my JPR position is untenable (by Lord Kalms)
“Antony Lerman's article in last week's JC added disingenuousness to his dangerous argument.”
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Friday 26 Jan 2007
Gunning for Lerman
“Over the past two weeks, readers will have noticed what appears to be an increasingly concerted campaign to destabilise the executive director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR), Antony Lerman.”
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Friday 19 Jan 2007
Don't slur me, Mr Leibler, engage with me (by Antony Lerman)
“It’s a sure sign of a bankrupt argument when you resort to calling for the dismissal from his job of the person you disagree with. When Isi Leibler incited Anglo-Jewish leaders to “act against me” in last week’s FC, he not only misrepresented my views, he failed utterly to engage with them.”
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Friday 19 Jan 2007
Children 'deprived'
“Around 3,000 Jewish Children are living below the poverty line in Britain today, according to new research into deprivation in the Jewish Community.”
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Friday 12 Jan 2007
Enough of weak leaders
“By and large, Anglo-Jewish leaders — with whom I have worked over many years — are dedicated, well-intentioned Jews, genuinely striving to serve their community.”
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Media contacts at JPR

All media enquiries should be directed to:

Judith Russell
020 7436 1553
jpr@jpr.org.uk