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, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
Im Tirtzu in Goldstone’s Footsteps
By and large, I resist conspiratorial explanation of events. Most often, coincidence governs; things that seem related have arrived together from different sources, and their togetherness is curious rather than significant. Now, however, I admit to alarm. We are witness to an escalating series of events that begin to feel cumulative, moving faster and faster…
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Opinion Knesset Slimers Retreat After Foxman Slams Defamation of New Israel Fund (update)
The threatened Knesset investigation of the New Israel Fund by the Israeli right has been halted, for now, following several angry phone calls to Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin from irate American Jewish communal leaders, warning that an Israeli investigation could backfire on other Jewish organizations involved in Israel. Abe Foxman of ADL is quoted telling…
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Opinion Must See TV: O’Reilly Chats Up Jon Stewart, Offers Him a VP Slot, Calls Him a Jew
Here, for your viewing delight, is Jon Stewart’s appearance on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” in three parts. The interview ran over two nights, Tuesday, February 3 (Parts 1 and 2 below) and Wednesday, February 4 (Part 3 below). The whole thing is a fascinating exercise in the current state of the media-politics-entertainment nexus and…
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Opinion ‘No Alternative to Day Schools’: An Exchange
In our December 11 issue, the Forward published an opinion article from Rabbi Irving Greenberg titled “There Is No Alternative to Day Schools.” Lamenting what he sees as an increasing tendency in the Jewish community to look beyond day schools in favor of less expensive educational alternatives, Greenberg wrote: “I, too, wish there were a…
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Letters February 12, 2009
Don’t Forget Yiddish Your editorial on the need for Hebrew in order to sustain Jewish life in America is particularly surprising coming from the Forward, which throughout its 100-plus year history, and even today, has as a core mission sustaining and advancing Yiddish as a culture and a language (“Taking Hebrew Seriously,” January 29). Although…
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Opinion On Health, Settling for Change We Can Agree On
We have reason to be angry. After a year of effort, no comprehensive health reform legislation has reached the president’s desk. Nor have we created a grassroots movement for change. Tragically, we have failed to educate the public about the issues and the approaches embodied in the House and Senate bills or about reasonable alternatives….
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Opinion Build a Partnership for Peace, Right Here in America
With the turbulence surrounding diplomacy and the Middle East peace process, it is more urgent than ever for civil society to unite around the obvious reality that a conflict-ending solution can only be attained through the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security. The two-state solution became…
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Opinion The Brothers Fein: Big Dreams and Baby Steps
In my family, we specialize. Ever since graduate school, the specialty of my older brother, Rashi, has been the economics of health care. He was an early and fervent advocate of single-payer national health insurance, and his expert knowledge and thoughtful approaches were widely sought and widely hailed. From time to rare time over the…
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Opinion Shaking the Pillars of Israeli Democracy
There’s an old rule of thumb among journalists, safety engineers and other professional snoops: One is happenstance, two is a coincidence, three is a trend. That’s what is so worrying about the witch-hunt recently launched against the New Israel Fund by a group of Israeli right-wing bullies that calls itself Im Tirtzu (“If you will…
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Opinion Resist Segregation
The need to restrain the burgeoning power of Jewish fundamentalism in Israel grows ever more urgent. The latest flashpoint is public transportation. For several years, on an increasing number of public buses, women have been expected not only to cover their arms and legs, but also to board and sit separately from men, in the…
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Opinion A Stronger Military
Finally, nearly 16 years after the foolhardy “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy was enacted by Congress, the nation’s top two defense officials have called for an end to the pretense that somehow America’s military is better off if gay and lesbian service members keep their identities a secret. “No matter how I look at the…
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