Wikipedia

Ben Judah

Benjamin William Judah (born 31 March 1988) is a British journalist and author of This Is London and Fragile Empire.

Early and personal life

The son of journalist Tim Judah and Rosie Whitehouse, he was born in London.[1][2] He is of Baghdadi Jewish descent.[3] He spent a portion of his childhood in the Balkans before returning to London where he was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle.[1] He studied politics at Trinity College, Oxford during the 2000s.[4][5] Judah is married to journalist Rosie Gray.[6]

Career

Judah began his career as a foreign correspondent. He covered the 2008 Russo-Georgian War,[5] the 2010 Kyrgyz Revolution and the 2011 Tunisian Revolution and has reported from the Levant, Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia and Xinjiang.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Judah has held fellowships on foreign affairs at a variety of think-tanks committed to Western alliances. From 2010 to 2012, Judah was a policy fellow in London at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a pro-European think tank.[14] From 2017 to 2020, he held a research fellowship at the Atlanticist think tank the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., where he led research for the Kleptocracy Initiative.[15][16] From 2020 to 2024, He was a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C.,where he directed the Transform Europe Initiative.[17]

Judah has written three books. His first, Fragile Empire (2013), a study of Vladimir Putin's Russia, was published by Yale University Press.[18][19] His second, This Is London, was published by Picador in 2016. The book was longlisted for the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction and its Polish translation shortlisted for the 2019 Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage and received positive reviews, though some experts criticised its sensationalism and questioned its authenticity.[20][21][22] This Is London brought Judah to the attention of MP David Lammy.[23] His third book This is Europe was published by Picador in 2023.[24]

From February 2024 until early 2026, Judah worked as Special Advisor to David Lammy.[2][25] According to the New Statesman, Judah shaped Lammy's doctrine of "progressive realism" and raised Lammy's profile domestically and internationally.[23]

Political positions

Judah has suggested the left ought to "embrace the results of the free market and technology" with regard to the effects of labour automation on professions, which he considered would bring about "a radical opening up of legal and financial expertise"; he proposed to call this political direction "socialism with an iPad".[26]

During the internal Labour Party row over the revision of the previously adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism in the summer of 2018, Judah criticised "hardliners around [Jeremy] Corbyn, such as his director of strategy, Seumas Milne" for diluting the party's antisemitism code on the one hand, and the three leading Anglo-Jewish newspapers' denunciation of a potential Corbyn government as an "existential threat" to Jews in Britain on the other hand, regarding the latter as a symptom of post-Brexit radicalisation in British politics.[27]

In a 2020 op-ed co-authored with Progressive International's general secretary David Adler, he favourably contrasted Bernie Sanders's foreign policy positions with Barack Obama's record on Russia, stating that Sanders's support for the Green New Deal and targeting of state corruption undermined the "pillars of Kremlin power".[28]

Relations with George Galloway's circle

Judah claimed to have been punched in the face and insulted for his Jewish background by Respect Party activists at the party's meeting as a Politico reporter not long before Respect's dissolution in 2016.[29]

George Galloway's new formation Workers Party of Britain later published the claim that Judah had been named as a Russia expert by Chris Donnelly in a 2016 Integrity Initiative document, leaked by Anonymous in 2018.[30]

Awards and recognition

In 2015, he was commended as the Feature Writer of the Year award at the British Press Awards.[31]

Judah's name appeared on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2016.[32]

In 2024, the New Statesman named Judah as one of the 50 most influential people shaping the UK's progressive politics.[23]

Bibliography

Books

References

  1. 1 2 Clibbon, Jennifer. "Snowden, Syria, Vladimir Putin's 'Cold Peace' with the West | CBC News".
  2. 1 2 MacShane, Denis (12 March 2024). "Ben Judah: Labour's new voice on Europe". TheArticle. Archived from the original on 17 December 2024. Retrieved 22 February 2026.
  3. ↑ Judah, Ben. "Ben Judah: The last of our synagogues". www.thejc.com. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
  4. ↑ "Ben Judah feels like a stranger in his native London". The Spectator. 6 February 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Cherwell Star: Ben Judah". Cherwell. 16 October 2008. Archived from the original on 22 November 2016. Retrieved 6 October 2025.
  6. ↑ Palmer, Anna; Sherman, Jake (2 September 2019). "POLITICO Playbook: Trump's 'lost summer'". POLITICO. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
  7. ↑ Judah, Ben (April 2011). "From Carthage to Kasserine". Standpoint Magazine. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  8. ↑ Judah, Ben (9 April 2010). "Blood in the Streets of Bishkek". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  9. ↑ Judah, Ben (October 2009). "Moscow: Putin's Empire Strikes Out". Standpoint Magazine. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  10. ↑ Judah, Ben (October 2008). "Caucasus: Diary, August–September, 2008". Standpoint Magazine. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  11. ↑ Judah, Ben (February 2014). "Hunting the Lynx with the Old Believers | Standpoint". Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  12. ↑ Judah, Ben (August 2010). "Tajikistan: In Search of the Yeti | Standpoint". Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  13. ↑ Judah, Ben (August 2010). "Xinjiang: Taming China's Wild West | Standpoint". Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  14. ↑ "Ben Judah". European Council on Foreign Relations. 9 March 2012.
  15. ↑ "Experts – Ben Judah – Hudson Institute". www.hudson.org. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  16. ↑ Judah, Ben (2024), Fighting Kleptocracy in an Era of Geopolitics (PDF), Washington, DC: National Endowment for Democracy, p. 19
  17. ↑ "Ben Judah". Atlantic Council. Archived from the original on 3 September 2025. Retrieved 6 October 2025.
  18. ↑ Feinberg, Richard (November 2013). "Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin". Foreign Affairs. 92 (6).
  19. ↑ Tismaneanu, Vladimir (May 2014). "Reviewed Work: Fragile Empire: How Russia Fell In and Out of Love with Vladimir Putin by Ben Judah". International Affairs. 90 (3): 725–727.
  20. ↑ Oliver, Tim (1 May 2016). "This Is London: Life and Death in the World City Ben Judah". International Affairs. 92 (3): 737–738. doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12627.
  21. ↑ "This is London by Ben Judah". www.panmacmillan.com. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  22. ↑ Herrman, Joshi; Kersley, Andrew (13 December 2024). "A government advisor wrote a libel against London. Why did we believe it?". The Londoner. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  23. 1 2 3 "The left power list 2024". New Statesman. 4 June 2024. Archived from the original on 5 June 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  24. ↑ Hayden, Sally (1 December 2023). "Portraits of migrants in Europe". TLS. Retrieved 17 February 2026.
  25. ↑ Baker, Patrick (20 February 2026). "The strange death of the long-term prime minister". POLITICO. Retrieved 23 February 2026.
  26. ↑ Judah, Ben (11 December 2015). "Oldham by-election: maybe "socialism with an iPad" is what we need". Prospect.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ↑ Judah, Ben (1 August 2018). "British Jews Find Their Voice". The Atlantic.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ↑ Judah, Ben; Adler, David (20 February 2020). "Hawks say Sanders will be weak on Russia. But Putin should fear a President Bernie". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2025.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ↑ Colvile, Robert (2 January 2016). "Bye George". Prospect.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ↑ Bevin, Phil (9 June 2023). "Axis of Terror: Nato and its modern Left and Anarchist support". Workers Party of Britain. Archived from the original on 9 June 2023. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
  31. ↑ "Press Awards". Archived from the original on 26 June 2017. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  32. ↑ "Ben Judah, 27". Forbes. 18 January 2016. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2020.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ben_Judah&oldid=1348804960"