With regard to a December 2 Forward article, “Conservatives Grapple With Gay Wedding Rite,” we wish to clarify our position on the draft of a new ceremony for gay and lesbian couples in discussion before the Conservative movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. The drafting of these model ceremonies of commitment and separation, in…
The Touro College community was deeply disappointed by two recent Forward articles: “Is Jerusalem Online U. a Real College?” (November 11) and “Touro Under Scrutiny Over Israel Class” (November 18). Touro College is a respected, fully accredited, Jewish-sponsored independent institution of higher and professional education with some 19,000 students enrolled at schools and divisions throughout…
Thanks to Henry Morgenthau, Jr., (father of Robert Morgenthau) in 1944, President Roosevelt acted to save Jews by creating the War Refugee Board. Other than that, whatever FDR did to save Jews between 1939 and 1945 was merely accidental. The reasoning of Robert Morgenthau in his October 21 op-ed, “How FDR’s Political Risk Helped Save…
I have always enjoyed looking through the “Forward 50” and finding many people who I respect and admire recognized for their good work. So I was surprised and disappointed to see David Yerushalmi and Jennifer Rubin included in this year’s list. Yerushalmi’s fear-mongering campaign against Islamic law — Shariah — should be an embarrassment to…
I was stunned to read in your November 11 article that Cardinal Kurt Koch, the Vatican’s emissary, said the cross should be viewed as the definitive Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is about reminding and insisting that individuals need to take responsibility for their behavior. The cross is about avoiding responsibility by having Jesus take responsibility…
Your September 23 article regarding Sheldon Adelson, Ronald Lauder, and Israel’s Channel 10, “American Billionaire Sparks Israeli Media Furor,” misses the main point. The article asserts only the media’s rights, and ignores the media’s responsibilities, in reporting news. You report that a number of editors at Channel 10 resigned when they were forced to issue…
In assessing the growing divide in American Jewish opinion regarding how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jay Michaelson (“The Logical Realignment,” October 14) claims this “is simply an alignment of conservatives with conservative policies and of liberals with liberal ones.” Were it this simple, the great liberal majority of American Jews would unambiguously support President…
I am the mother of a young musician in his first year of service in the Israel Defense Forces. This is what I need to know: that if he were in Gilad Shalit’s position, my people would never, ever leave him behind in order to avoid the terrible calculus of securing his life in an…
Did Israel ask the relatives of those hundreds of Israelis who were murdered by terrorists about their feelings and opinions pertaining to the release of their relatives’ murderers (“Free at Last, Shalit Returns to Israel,” October 18)? Hypothetically, suppose there were secret recordings of some of those to be released declaring that as soon as…
Jay Michaelson writes in his September 16 column of his delight and empowerment in D.I.Y. — Do it Yourself — Judaism. While he acknowledges that Judaism has always been a tradition of direct access, where we are “each responsible for our own religious lives,” he writes, “only a small minority of non-Orthodox Jews live this…
The Forward’s September 16, 2011 news story and editorial questioning the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program because it purportedly disproportionately serves Jewish institutions (and Orthodox institutions, at that), betrays several profound misunderstandings about the program’s purpose, government’s role in supporting non-profits, and the Orthodox community’s leading role in the Jewish organizational world. The news story’s…
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