As a social work advocate, I was delighted to read Joel Berg’s article, “The Ethics of Street Giving” (November 16). Whether or not to give money to those who beg on the street is a dilemma many people confront frequently. The piece will help them make more informed decisions. A more important benefit of the…
As a Jewish climate activist, I was pleased to see the tight causal linkages drawn by the Forward between climate change and Hurricane Sandy in the November 9 editorial “Sandy’s Lessons.” The Forward, unlike many media outlets, clearly and responsibly informed its readers about the causes of Hurricane Sandy and illustrated how Sandy was a…
You omitted key information about the role of NEXT: A Division of Birthright Israel Foundation as an igniter of systemic change in the field of Jewish young adult engagement (“Birthright Reshuffles Follow-up Effort,” November 9). Furthermore, what you present as a reduction in funding from Birthright Israel Foundation was a result of many donors giving…
Jane Eisner’s comments on Monica Lewinsky (“Mulling Over Monica,” October 5) and her new book made me lose my breakfast. Coming off of the Yom Kippur fast, I did not need the loss of its nutritional value. In the contest between whose morality was lower, Clinton’s or Lewinsky’s, I would expect more from a married…
In your rundown of Bob Dylan’s most Jewish songs (“The Bard’s 10 Most Jewish Songs,” October 5) you forgot “Father of Night” and “Drifter’s Escape.” The first is a doxology to an awe-inspiring God much like the God of Judaism; in the second, the drifter (a wanderer, like the Jewish people) is accused of an…
I am a subscriber to the Forward. I look forward to it and read it weekly. I am quite frustrated that a paper that professes to be a Jewish publication continues to use the phrases “Occupied Territories” and “Palestinians.” The British Balfour Declaration ratified by the League of Nations in 1922 set up Palestine as…
Magen Tzedek is an initiative of utmost importance to the ongoing commitment of all religious communities to the just and ethical production of food, one of the most sacred of gifts. That the initiative is off to a “slow start” (“Magen Tzedek, a Response to Agriprocessors Scandal, Still Not in Operation,” October 5) is hardly…
The October 5 article, “Haggadah Editor Admits Using Another’s Texts,” identifies three of the four contributors to the Haggadah: Jeffrey Goldberg, Lemony Snicket and Nathan Englander. It failed to mention the fourth contributor, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, who, as a MacArthur Fellow, National Jewish Book Award Winner, Koret Prize winner, and author of nine books, is…
In his apparent drive to combat the real-world problem of anti-Semitic bias, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (“Fuel for the Days of Rage,” September 28) seems unfortunately — and ironically — oblivious to his own counterproductive stereotyping of another group: “political Islamists.” Without defining the term, he glibly suggests that those so identified seek, as an “annihilative…
You have accepted an ad from the Republican Jewish Coalition (September 14 edition) that is loaded with innuendo and advances the name calling and rumor mongering that often characterize this political campaign season. The ad from Republican Jews is just one step from libel, but it makes it all the way to vulgar and demagogic….
We were delighted to see the oped by Jacques Berlinerblau (“Untangling an Oxymoron: The Secular Jew,” September 14). For more than 110 years, The Workmen’s Circle/Arbeter Ring has been committed to a vision of a vibrant progressive, secular, social-action-oriented Jewish community steeped in the cultural heritage of the Jewish people. In this context, the author’s…
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