Opinion

• Opinion

  In Tel Aviv, a Special Place Comes Under Attack

  The Youth Bar on Nachmani Street is a special place. Every Saturday night, gay teenagers gather in this residential apartment in the heart of Tel Aviv. The apartment, which was willed to the gay community by a local gay activist, has been a spot for gay teenagers to find companionship and support in a safe,…

  By Gal Uchovsky

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Kassin Family Tree

  I could be off by a dozen or so, but I count 70 rabbis in the family, going back to the year 1540. That makes the Kassin rabbinic dynasty one of the oldest on record. The Syrian Jewish community, now in the news for exceedingly distasteful reasons, is fabled for its insularity, hence not much…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 30, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Giving Life

  Of all the repugnant images of Jews accompanying the recent arrests of rabbis and others accused of money laundering and public corruption, none was as repellent as the charges against Levy Izhak Rosenbaum for trafficking in human organs. Worse, federal authorities alleged, his business of buying and selling body parts had gone on for a…

  Jul 29, 2009 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman A billionaire Gen Z influencer is reinventing philanthropy — with this South African rabbi’s help

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s strike in Qatar: An audacious bid for victory, or just another foolhardy provocation?

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

• Letters

  August 8, 2009

  In his July 17 column “Who Is an Israeli?” Leonard Fein states that “Israelis haven’t a clue as to how to think about, let alone deal with, their society’s diversity.” I would submit that there is indeed a clue, and it comes from a time and place where the proverbial shoe was on the proverbial…

  Jul 29, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Light Unto the Nations, or a Cautionary Tale?

  The news that a slew of rabbis and politicians have been caught in a web of money laundering, corruption and even organ trafficking is providing grist for rabbis’ sermons across the country. It is taking its place in our synagogues among the things we mourn this Tisha B’Av. And understandably so. Even if some of…

  By Moshe Rosenberg Jul 29, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Summer of Hunger

  For most children, summer means time to explore and discover, time for camp, or vacation, or other enriching out-of-classroom experiences. Time to learn through play. For many low-income children, however, summer means hunger. It means the glassed-over eyes and lethargy that accompany unfilled bellies. It means children consuming the empty but filling calories that contribute…

  By Melissa Boteach and Hadar Susskind Jul 29, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Reports of Peace on the Horizon Are Exaggerated

  The Obama administration’s resolute focus on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has generated a wave of predictions of an imminent end to the conflict. President Obama himself foresees a solution by the end of his first term and talks of setting a deadline. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says the job can be done in two…

  By Yossi Alpher Jul 29, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  On Obama and Israel, Rage Without Reason

  Alarm bells have been ringing around the neighborhood pretty much nonstop since July 13, when President Obama sat down to talk Middle East policy at the White House with a pack of leaders from a dozen American Jewish organizations. The meeting was supposed to help buff up Obama’s relationship with the Jewish community, which is…

  By J.J. Goldberg Jul 29, 2009 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Norway and the Holocaust

  Norway is honoring the 150th anniversary of the birth of novelist and poet Knut Hamsun, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920. So acclaimed was Hamsun’s work that Isaac Bashevis Singer declared that “the whole modern school of fiction in the 20th century stems from Hamsun.” But in his later years — he…

  Jul 29, 2009 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  ‘Continuity Crisis’ to Activist Opportunity

  When the results from the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey were released, one figure made headlines: 52%. That number purportedly represented the intermarriage rate among Jews who were married between 1985 and 1990. It was by no means the first indication that intermarriage was increasingly common, but it signaled the first time that a majority…

  By Simon Greer Jul 26, 2009 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Why We Mourn on the Ninth of Av

  There are some good reasons why many religiously liberal, non-Orthodox Jews choose not to observe Tisha B’Av: We do not yearn for the restoration of animal sacrifice to our worship of God, so it seems strange to take part in that day’s mourning for the First and Second Temples, both of which are said to…

  By Mark Washofsky Jul 22, 2009 | 3 min read