In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
The Way We Aid
For more than half a century, North America’s Jewish federation system has divided its overseas allocations between the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. The Jewish Agency has been dedicated to building up Israel and encouraging aliyah, while the Joint has focused on aiding Jewish communities in need around the…
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Opinion Carrots, Sticks and Iranian Uranium
Diplomacy as a rule occurs out of sight. Messages are delivered in hushed conversations in U.N. corridors, through back channels or in tightly choreographed discussions on the sidelines of summit meetings. The language is subtle and the tone well-mannered, but the message is usually clear. Recently, however, in the span of only two days, the…
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Opinion Goodbye Wissenschaft, Hello Relevance
The Jewish Theological Seminary’s chancellor, Arnold Eisen, recently unveiled a bold new strategic plan aimed at transforming the school’s curriculum, redefining its purpose and setting forth its future direction. The plan called to mind a story that my late father used to tell about a modest change that he proposed to the JTS curriculum as…
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Opinion What To Do With Bar Mitzvah Crashers
We evidently need a new system. I am referring to the traditional method for deciding who shall be invited to attend a bar or bat mitzvah. In olden times, when nature and nurture combined to indicate the ripeness of the child, the invitation list almost composed itself: family, friends, perhaps colleagues. But, as the saying…
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Opinion Faith at Ground Zero
It takes faith to do this. We may as well be honest and acknowledge that it takes a bucket-load of faith in the human capacity for tolerance and forgiveness to do what is surely the right thing to do, but the difficult thing to do, and allow construction of a towering mosque and Islamic community…
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Opinion A Bitter Tea Party
Americans have railed against the power of the federal government even before we had one, so the recent, ridiculous remarks by GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul about the Civil Rights Act unfortunately find an echo in history. Worse has been said, and done. Besides, every generation needs to be reminded to guard against government tyranny,…
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Opinion Whither Liberal Zionism?
Can you be a liberal and a Zionist today? In a long and thoughtful essay in the New York Review of Books, Peter Beinart accurately describes how and why so many young American Jews are becoming alienated from Israel and blames the American Jewish establishment for its lock-step support of the Israeli government’s current policies…
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Opinion Shouting but Not Hearing
Yoram Tehar Lev, a songwriter from Kibbutz Yagur, tells the story of a rabbi who was hired by an old-line congregation. Upon arriving, he was mystified: During the recitation of the Sh’ma, half the worshippers stood while the other half remained seated. Those who were standing would shout to those who were sitting, “You are…
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Opinion The Rebellious Child
No doubt, Terrance Graham was a wayward, rebellious child. At 16, he helped rob a restaurant in Florida and was sentenced to a year in jail and three years’ probation. But Graham violated that probation when he was 17, and, with two older accomplices, burst into a man’s home and robbed him at gunpoint. For…
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Opinion Getting Serious About Iran
In 1967, I was a contented sophomore at Brandeis University. Then, in May of that year, I watched in horror and dismay as Arab nations massed troops on Israel’s border and the nations of the West, including the United States, responded with studied indifference. I was absolutely certain that Israel faced imminent destruction. As Israel…
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Opinion Look Who’s Raising Jews
What do you call people who study Jewish traditions, regularly attend synagogue and work hard to raise Jewish children? Often we simply call such people “non-Jews.” According to the 2000–01 National Jewish Population Survey, 24% of people living in Jewish households are not Jews, the result of an intermarriage rate that was estimated to have…
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