Dear Editor, Regarding your “Sexiest Jewish Intellectual” list: it is beyond an appalling and tone deaf use of column inches to have this list. We are in the throes of a near constant stream of conversations about sexual harassment and assault and calling intellectualism sexy is not cute and is a mystifying objectification of women…
Dear Editor, At the Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) annual gala held in Manhattan last Sunday evening, I had a conversation with the Forward’s opinion editor, Batya Ungar-Sargon. Ungar-Sargon proceeded to reference some of our conversation in an article she wrote covering the event. However, her piece is missing context. First, she wrote that I…
The Harvey Weinstein scandal is just the latest case of the misuse and exploitation of power through sexual harassment and abuse by people in influential positions. It has caught everyone’s attention and has empowered victims to come forward, speak out, and be believed. Hopefully it is finally the catalyst for significant cultural change. But sexual…
Dear Rabbi Farber, Thank you for your note regarding our decision to take down the Elie Wiesel story. Your concerns are valid and commendable, and I’ll do my best to respond. The story in question was not reported by the Forward. It was aggregated from a story that appeared on another site. We made a…
Dear Editor, I saw the retraction of the Elie Wiesel story. It is very difficult to read such a terse and vague statement and not worry that perhaps it isn’t about journalistic standards as opposed to threats by powerful people. I have no opinions on the subject personally, I don’t know the author and did…
Dear Editor, I’m admittedly less versed than Avi Shafran in Jewish theology and how it dictates religious administration, but I do take issue with his argument that women should be excluded from religious leadership on the grounds that this desire is borne from “external” influence. Are the considerable number of Jewish women who feel a…
A recent article in the Forward claimed that by accepting an invitation to a meeting with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of Poland’s ruling conservative party, Chabad is “feuding” with Jewish organizations. This is not true. Chabad violated no understanding, explicit or implicit, nor any relationship with the other Jewish representatives by taking this meeting. In…
Dear Editor, Peter Beinart claims that Israel, as a Jewish state, has a special obligation to abstain from selling arms to Myanmar. However, his article fails to provide critical background information on which countries actually sell arms to Myanmar and how Israel’s sales compare to the total. The result was surprising. According to public data…
Dear Editor, After reading articles on the divisions among Jewish people over Israel, Zionism, settlements and the like, I have one question: Why does it really matter? There has been an elephant in the room since Israel was established. At no time since it’s inception have the Muslim states ever agreed to live with Israel…
To the Forward, Of course I have every sympathy for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. But when I read the line about what a young man told his Jewish mother when he met his wife for the first time (“She’s so beautiful, I can’t believe she’s Jewish!”), I couldn’t believe I was reading…
Dear Editor, The religion I grew up with always included “Next year in Jerusalem” in EVERY Sabbath service. EVERY SINGLE ONE. The idea that Zioness could be threatening to anyone is absurd and misogynistic. If Linda Sarsour felt threatened it is her own paranoia, especially since she is a supporter of Sharia law which is…
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