Opinion

• Opinion

  To Print, or Not To Print?

  This week, the Forward reprints an offensive cartoon of Naomi Chazan accompanying a story about attacks on the New Israel Fund, of which she is president. But we chose not to reproduce any of the Danish cartoons satirizing the prophet Muhammad and offensive to many Muslims — and the subject of a book reviewed by…

  By Jane Eisner

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  If America Sneezes, Israel Gets Pneumonia. What Happens When America Gets Pneumonia?

  You may or may not have noticed this story on the front page of The New York Times. Its main point is that the dizzying growth of our national indebtedness poses a threat not just to America’s economic health and future but to its role in the world. Even if you don’t much follow global…

  By J.J. Goldberg Feb 2, 2010 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Rightists Target New Israel Fund Over Grantees’ Goldstone Testimony

  A right-wing Israeli activist group is waging a multi-pronged public campaign to discredit the New Israel Fund (NIF), which supports human-rights groups in Israel. The activist group, Im Tirtzu (“If you will it” — from Theodor Herzl’s epigram “If you will it, it is no dream”), made the Friday (January 29) front page of Maariv,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 31, 2010 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry An Israeli media mainstay is crumbling. Will liberal democracy go with it?

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  We Are What We Eat

  Sometimes, simply promising to follow the law of the land is a welcome step forward. In that spirit, the new ethical guidelines issued by the Rabbinical Council of America regarding kosher food production must be applauded, even with the understanding of what they are not. They are not a new ethical manifesto along the lines…

  Jan 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Commitment to Renewal

  Even if the reasons for doing so are prosaic, there’s a welcome symbolism in the decision by the Jewish Federations of North America to move its annual General Assembly from Disney World to the city ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Federation officials say that there wasn’t enough space in Orlando to accommodate the thousands of expected…

  Jan 27, 2010 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Wiesenthal Center Digs Itself Deeper

  When I read that famed architect Frank Gehry was pulling out as designer of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s planned Museum of Tolerance in downtown Jerusalem, my thoughts immediately took me back to the site. Almost a year ago, I stood there with a group of rabbinical students and other young Jewish leaders to voice our…

  By Rabbi Alana Alpert Jan 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Grand Old Party’s Nor’easter

  Last spring, when Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party, the Republicans didn’t only lose their party’s sole Jewish senator. They also lost one of only four remaining Northeastern Republicans in the Senate. The conventional wisdom at the time was that the GOP was quickly becoming the party of the South and “flyover country.” Democrats…

  By Noam Neusner Jan 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  War on Internet Is a Fight the Rabbis Can’t Win

  Are Israel’s Haredi religious authorities losing control of their followers? In December, leading Israeli rabbis launched a new push to curtail Internet use among ultra-Orthodox Jews, emphasizing that their longstanding ban on Web surfing applied to sites geared toward the Haredi community as well. They threatened stricter penalties than ever before for those who disobeyed….

  By Miriam Shaviv Jan 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  So Tell Me, Rabbi, When Can I Criticize?

  You probably know this one: Yankel the beggar goes to the rabbi and pleads for a handout. “Please, Rabbi,” he says, “I haven’t eaten in days.” “Poor fellow,” the rabbi replies. “Here’s a ruble. Go buy yourself a meal.” An hour later, the rabbi is walking past the tavern and sees Yankel eating a big…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jan 27, 2010 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 5, 2009

  Hateful Book Violates Jewish Values It is shocking that a book suggesting the biblical imperative of “Thou Shalt Not Murder” only applies to “a Jew who kills a Jew” is widely available in religious bookstores in Israel and has been enthusiastically endorsed by several prominent rabbis (“Rabbinic Text or Call to Terror?” January 29). The…

  Jan 27, 2010 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  What Haiti Requires of Us

  And now Haiti. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 — an earthquake under the ocean, generating a tidal wave that in some places was a hundred feet high — left 226,000 dead. In Haiti, it is too soon to know the final tally; too many bodies are still buried under the rubble. Current estimates are…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 27, 2010 | 4 min read