In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Laura E. Adkins.
Opinion
-
Opinion
The circumstances of Shireen Abu Akleh’s tragic death and funeral prove Israel has not learned from the past
I am dreading Sunday’s Jerusalem Day parade like never before. Because the Israeli police force that is supposed to provide protection as a hateful, ultra-nationalist Israeli parade marches through the Old City’s Muslim quarter is the very same one that assaulted mourners two weeks ago for carrying Palestinian flags at the funeral of a journalist…
-
Opinion Putin is no match for my Jewish Ukrainian babushka
When I was in the fourth grade, I came home from school one afternoon to find my babushka’s warm cheese blintzes waiting for me on the kitchen table, but my babushka was nowhere in sight. Instead, my grandma, Hannah, had gone to see our neighbor Avi, a former special-ops officer in the Israeli Defense Forces,…
-
Opinion What part of ‘Just kill them’ does the world not understand?
The trove of internal Chinese police files documenting the mass internment and torture of innocent civilians should, in a perfect world, tip international public opinion from outrage to action. We now have proof of Chinese intent to commit genocide, and Western corporations and consumers cannot look away. The Xinjiang Police Files, leaked to the BBC…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion What will it take for Orthodox Judaism to hold sexual abusers accountable?
I’m a survivor of abuse in the Haredi community and the director of a survivor advocacy organization. Seeing the results of investigations taking place in various religious denominations feels a lot like being an “older single” at a wedding. You sit there wondering if it will ever happen for you while well-meaning friends and relatives…
-
Opinion Unless we teach about consent to our teens, sexual assault at Jewish summer camps will continue
In recent weeks, the Jewish community learned about a lawsuit involving a camper who sexually assaulted another camper at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in 2018. While the U.S. Southern District Court of New York will weigh the issues regarding institutional responsibility, there is a familiar gender element to the case: This boundary-breaking, like far too…
-
Opinion When it comes to gun control, why can’t the U.S. be more like Israel?
The mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, makes me want to scream. If you are a parent, or if you were ever a child, it’s impossible to read about the deliberate slaughter of 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School by an 18-year-old gunman and not want to just shut down and cry. That’s…
-
Opinion A Palestinian was shot and paralyzed over a generator. Now Israel threatens to take his home
Harun Abu Aram was engaged to be married. That day, in fact, he had planned to have a picnic with his fiancee and her parents, maybe in one of the many olive groves in the vicinity of his house in Masafer Yatta, 12 miles south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Harun’s family said…
-
Opinion It’s not about you: Why the Forward’s article on the anti-Jewish elements of the Buffalo shooter’s screed was offensive
Last Tuesday, the Forward published an article originally headlined, “The Buffalo shooter targeted Black people. But his screed focuses on Jews.” After feedback from several Black Jews, the Forward changed the headline, to address concerns that the article focused on the Jewish community rather than the Black community that suffered the loss of life. Even…
-
Opinion My fellow white Jews: This is not our shiva
My mother taught me that a shiva is not a party. We are not there for the food. We are not there to catch up with our friends. We are there for a specific purpose: to comfort the mourners. To tend to the needs the grieving cannot do for themselves. To be a presence and…
-
Opinion Who gets to say what is kosher? A Long Island restaurant is caught in the crosshairs
It’s easy, in theory, to say that courts should stay out of religious matters. But what happens when money and faith collide? How should judges balance the government’s responsibility to regulate commercial conduct against the constitutional separation of church and state? For over a century, one of the prime areas where these two core principles…
-
Opinion I’m not Jewish. But being called “dirty Jew” shook me like no other insult
It happened four years ago, yet the memory remains fresh. I was waiting for a downtown A train at the West 4th Street subway station in New York. A middle-aged man was panhandling on the not-crowded platform, approaching each person, most of whom nodded “no.” He reached me, and I declined, too. He did not…
Explore
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture Why Don McLean’s pro-NRA stance is head-spinning but unsurprising
-
Fast Forward Jerusalem Day right-wing march to proceed as planned, Bennett says
-
Fast Forward Junior’s, NYC’s iconic Jewish cheesecake emporium, buys back guns to protect the city it loves
-
Fast Forward England’s first Holocaust ‘stumbling stone’ will honor a woman who tried to rescue her family
Engage
-
SHARE YOUR FEEDBACK
-
UPCOMING EVENT