Jake Wallis Simons

Jake Wallis Simons was born in London, to a mother of Scottish Jewish heritage and a British father. His parents divorced when Jake was aged 5 and his mother sent him to a series of religious Jewish schools.^[3] He graduated with a first class degree in English from St Peter's College, Oxford, before completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of East Anglia in 2009.^[4]

Simons has been a freelance features writer for the Times and a broadcaster for BBC Radio 4, presenting documentaries^[5] and appearing on From Our Own Correspondent.^[6] He then joined the Sunday Telegraph, leaving to become Associate Global Editor at the Daily Mail.^[7]

He was appointed editor of The Jewish Chronicle in December 2021, succeeding Stephen Pollard.^[8] In January 2025, he stepped down from the role to focus on writing books.^[9] He writes a regular column for The Telegraph^[10] and his work also features frequently in the Spectator,^[11] the New York Post,^[12] and The Jewish Chronicle. He maintains an online newsletter.^[13]

He participated in the team which won a Webby award^[14] and a European Newspapers Award^[15] for the 2014 multimedia project for the Telegraph entitled Meet the Settlers about Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

His four novels^[2] include The English German Girl about a 1930s Jewish refugee, which was included in the Fiction Uncovered promotion for writers 'who deserve wider recognition' in 2011.^[16] His book Israelophobia, a work criticising anti-Zionism, was published in 2023.^[17][18]