Ben Judah

Ben Judah (born 1988) is a British political adviser, author and former journalist. Since February 2024, he has been a political adviser to David Lammy, who became Foreign Secretary in July of that year.

Early and personal life

The son of author Tim Judah and Rosie Whitehouse, he was born in London. He is of Baghdadi Jewish descent. 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. He attended the University of Oxford.

Judah is married to journalist Rosie Gray.

Career

Judah began his career as a journalist covering the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, the 2010 Kyrgyz Revolution and the 2011 Tunisian Revolution and reported from the Caucasus, Siberia, Central Asia and Xinjiang.

From 2010 to 2012, Judah was a policy fellow in London at the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank. He has also been a visiting fellow at the European Stability Initiative in Istanbul. From 2017 to 2020, he was a research fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C.
Judah was a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in Washington, D.C., from 2020 to 2024.

Judah has written for various progressive and conservative think-tanks on foreign affairs including the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Policy Exchange. His work has also featured at the German Council on Foreign Relations. Judah has written on foreign affairs for numerous publications including ''The New York Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. He has been a guest on ''CNN'', ''BBC News'' and ''Channel 4 News'' and was a contributing writer for ''Politico Europe''. He has interviewed and profiled French President Emmanuel Macron, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

Judah has written three books. His first, ''Fragile Empire'' (2013), a study of Vladimir Putin's Russia, was published by Yale University Press. His second, ''This Is London'', was published by Picador in 2016. The book was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction 2016 and shortlisted for the Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage 2019. ''This Is London'' brought Judah to the attention of Lammy.

However, the book was also criticized for several allegedly racist passages where Judah described Black people and other Londonders with exaggerated physical characteristics, such as calling one Black man "pure African" and stating he had a "melon head" or writing that another Black man had an "oblong Somali head that slopes down into thick lips." The book was also criticized for factual errors, such as wrongly claiming that "a gun is fired in London every six hours" when the source Judah cited said this occurs once a day.

Judah had previously published false information about London in the ''New York Times'', wrongly claiming in a 2014 op-ed that "ultra high net worth individuals" were entertaining "escorts in luxury apartments" and "investment bankers" were trading "incomprehensible derivatives" in The Shard — at the time, the apartments in the building had not been sold, so there were no residents involved in any activities there, and there were no firms trading derivatives in the building. The column also falsely claimed the "townhouses in the capital’s poshest districts are empty" at a time when London's high end Kensington and Chelsea borough was the second most densely populated local authority in England and Wales.

His third book ''This is Europe'' was published by Picador in 2023.

Political career

In February 29, 2024, Judah was announced as a political adviser to David Lammy, who became Foreign Secretary that July. According to the ''New Statesman'', Judah shaped Lammy's doctrine of "progressive realism" and raised Lammy's profile domestically and internationally.

Awards and recognition

In 2015, he was commended for the Feature Writer of the Year award at the British Press Awards.

Judah's name appeared on the ''Forbes'' 30 under 30 Europe list in 2016.

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

Bibliography

Books

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Selected articles

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judah, Ben
1988 births
Living people
21st-century British journalists
21st-century British writers
Alumni of the University of Oxford
British Jews
British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent
Writers about Russia
Writers from London
People educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle