In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
The death of illegal immigrants in San Antonio should remind Jews: we were once illegal
When you’re absorbing the horrific news of the 51 immigrants who cooked to death in the back of a smuggling van near the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this week, think of Feri Weiss. Weiss was an immigration inspector who was sent by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration in 1925 to report on illegal Jewish immigrants. His…
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Opinion I should never have experienced rape and illegal abortion. Neither should anyone else
The dismantling of Roe v. Wade isn’t a faraway dystopian nightmare for me. It’s a deeply personal memory. I was just 17 when, on Labor Day weekend 1972, I was raped at gunpoint in a wooded area not far from my father’s home. Afterward, the rapist threatened to shoot me as I ran through the…
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Opinion I’m glad Coach Kennedy can pray at the 50-yard line
We ask too much of our public school employees. We rely on them to spend an average of $750 of their own money on school supplies each year. We thrust them onto the frontlines of a deadly pandemic. We increasingly task them with keeping young children quiet through a school shooting, or even with serving…
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Opinion The Jewish stake in Jan. 6 is bigger than you think
It’s very clear what the direct Jewish stake is in the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, aside from the not incidental fact that Jewish Americans overwhelmingly support abortion rights. Making abortion illegal may, as the lawsuit filed by a South Florida claims, infringe upon Jews’ religious freedom. It’s also clear what the direct…
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Opinion The underground abortion my mother had, and the one she didn’t
When my 84-year-old mother found out that the U.S. Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday, she sighed heavily. “It won’t stop anyone,” she said. “People are going to die.” She would know. Years before I was born, my then-college student mother turned down a marriage proposal. Her mother and stepfather told her…
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Opinion ‘We don’t live in the abstract’: 3 Jewish women on the fall of Roe v. Wade
In the hours after the Supreme Court issued its decision on Friday overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that enshrined a constitutional right to abortion, the explosion of opinions across the mediaverse was overwhelming. As we absorbed the news and scanned the ruling, a trio of female Forward journalists spent some time talking…
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Opinion This week’s Torah portion is all about the importance of independent journalism
This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. Download and print our free magazine of stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday. There is a special skill, or perhaps an innate gift, that many rabbis have, to…
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Opinion A Muslim and a Jew face the Bible Belt: Meet the only two doctors in Alabama providing gender-affirming care to trans youth
There is just one clinic in the state of Alabama providing gender-affirmative medicine for trans youth, and it is jointly run by two pediatric endocrinologists — one doctor who is Muslim, and one who is Jewish. It has not been easy providing care for trans youth in a deeply conservative (and Christian) state like Alabama. Despite…
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Opinion As a child, I shunned my Asian identity. As a Jewish adult, I embrace it
Years ago, when I first told my mom I was converting to Judaism, she worried that I would become less Chinese. More recently, when I told her I was legally changing my name, she wondered if “Christopher” was not Jewish enough, not realizing that I meant I was adopting her surname, Wong, as my middle…
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Opinion The Jewish case for reelecting Jerry Nadler has little to do with him
One of the most competitive congressional races in New York this year will pit two longtime incumbents, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, against each other. Maloney, who currently represents the East Side and parts of Queens, and Nadler, whose district includes the West Side and parts of Brooklyn, are both septuagenarians and powerful committee chairs….
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Opinion Even after being taken hostage, heroic Texas rabbi is still welcoming the stranger
If you are looking for the epitome of a welcoming synagogue, walk through the doors — or the online portal — of any congregation led by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker. I’m not just referring to the welcome heard ’round the world last January, when Rabbi Charlie opened the door of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas,…
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Theater Billy Crystal’s fake Yiddish was a Jewish standout at the Tonys — but how should Jews feel about it?
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News ‘Whose religious freedom?’: Scenes from a Jewish rally for abortion rights
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Culture On Bob Dylan’s 81st birthday, his 10 most Jewish songs
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New York Voices 99 years ago, she was born on the Lower East Side (and she still remembers everything)
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Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox leader implicated in decades of sexual abuse dies
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Opinion The death of illegal immigrants in San Antonio should remind Jews: we were once illegal
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