A weekly letter from our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, with a personal take on the news, Jewish issues, and journalism.
Forward Newsletters
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Mahmoud Khalil, Elon Musk and the upside-down world of Purim 2025
Pour yourself a whiskey and consider the things the world's richest man and the campus protester facing deportation have in common
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Calling everything a crisis is bad for the Jews
When we are always in a defensive crouch about antisemitism on college campuses, nuance and critical thinking become impossible
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What will you do if ICE shows up at your synagogue?
At a congregation that runs a public preschool in a suburb with a lot of immigrants from Central American, it's not an abstract question
The Latest
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Take Trump’s Gaza-a-Lago plan seriously, not literally
Forget all the reasons turning the Palestinian enclave into the "Riviera of the Middle East" seem impossible (and illegal). It's what underlies the president's wacko proposal that matters.
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The Jewish hostage nobody is talking enough about
Elizabeth Tsurkov has spent 682 days in captivity in Iraq. For her sister, Emma, watching the Gaza hostages go free brings a special kind of joy — and pain
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How a new ketubah helped one couple restart after the LA fire
The inferno took their home two days before their 31st wedding anniversary. So "it just felt right," said Dave Miner.
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Relief but also fear over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal
After 470 days, some hostages — and many Palestinians — will finally return home. But what really matters is what happens in the future.
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She chronicled life’s magic moments — the milestones and the mundane
Sally Friedman, a New Jersey columnist and the mother of my close friends died at 86 after years of debilitating dementia
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The latest casualty of the Israel-Hamas war is a volunteer police chaplain program in New Jersey
When Jews complained that an imam's anti-Israel posts included antisemitic tropes, the town disbanded the program rather than deal with the problem
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One Palestinian historian. A roomful of observant Jews. And a conversation all of us must have
What I learned from watching Rashid Khalidi speak at an Upper West Side salon
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How a Jewish student at Columbia became an icon of a movement
She started speaking out a few weeks after Oct. 7 and hasn't stopped since
Most Popular
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Music In 1964, when he was just 23, Bob Dylan wrote the prophetic anthem that encapsulates Trump’s America
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News Jewish groups targeted Columbia grad Mahmoud Khalil — then ICE arrested him
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Fast Forward Trump allies target Jewish judge — and his wife — after ruling on Palestinian activist
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Fast Forward What does the election of Mark Carney mean for Canadian Jews and Israel?
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion Trump’s crusade against Columbia is ripped straight from Hungary’s anti-Soros playbook
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Fast Forward How a Jewish man with Parkinson’s won ‘Jeopardy!’ after 24 years and a missed voicemail
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Fast Forward After welcoming far-right politicians, Israel’s antisemitism conference is hemorrhaging speakers
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Fast Forward Trump’s antisemitism chief shares ‘Jew card’ post from white supremacist
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