Opinion

• Opinion

  Saving the Agency

  America’s federated Jewish charities are stumbling into dangerous territory, risking their own mission and the health of the broader Jewish community, as they consider a plan to revamp their funding of international Jewish needs. The new plan supposedly broadens the reach of the federated charity system and boosts its appeal to donors by allowing more…

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Betraying Vatican II

  When 2,200 bishops from around the world overwhelmingly adopted the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in October 1965, they transformed a relationship of animus and suspicion that had existed for centuries between the Roman Catholic Church and its Jewish forebears. Jews were no longer considered the killers of Jesus Christ. Catholics were no longer…

  Jan 29, 2009 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Mitchell Mission

  Embarking on his mission as President Obama’s special Middle East peace negotiator, George Mitchell carries a burden of hopes and expectations almost too weighty for one pair of shoulders. For nearly a decade, politicians, diplomats and ordinary people around the world have watched in alarm as the Oslo peace process dissolved into relentless violence. Ever…

  Jan 28, 2009 | 2 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 Charlie Kirk and Alan Berg: 2 murders, 41 years apart, show the painful perils of polarization

  

• Nora Berman ‘A long record of failure’: Is it time to put the two-state solution to rest?

  

• 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

• Opinion

  Bad War, Good Soldiers

  I recently bumped into a mild-mannered, bookish paratrooper I know. He had come home to Jerusalem for a short weekend after spending two weeks in Gaza. I didn’t know what to expect when I asked him what he thought of the war. I thought I might hear him echo my own thoughts, and say that…

  By Haim Watzman Jan 28, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A How Many State Solution?

  The Gaza war ended with Hamas losing militarily but surviving politically. It is now clear that Hamas is here to stay in Gaza. Hamas’s survival and the concomitant issue of delivering reconstruction aid to Gaza will probably provide the focus for the early months of new Mideast envoy George Mitchell’s mission. For broader undertakings, Mitchell…

  By Yossi Alpher Jan 28, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Playing Favorites in Palestine

  One of the first questions that President Obama’s Mideast envoy George Mitchell will have to address is how to deal with a politically empowered Hamas and a politically weakened Fatah. Some counsel that America should continue its policy of trying to strengthen Fatah and undermine Hamas. But attempts to pit one Palestinian faction against another…

  By Amjad Atallah Jan 28, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Taking Back the Night

  It is still much too early to start singing dayenu, that wonderful song that celebrates each element of the Exodus and that says, bluntly, that each alone would have been sufficient. But the first building blocks of such a song celebrating the movement toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians have now been laid down….

  By Leonard Fein Jan 28, 2009 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 6, 2009

  Don’t Blame Israel I take issue with your January 30 article titled “Gazan Doctor’s Tragedy Opens Israelis’ Eyes to Palestinian Pain.” The article describes the unintended deaths of three children of Gazan physician Izzeldin Abuelaish when an Israeli shell hit his home. The article quotes an Israeli army spokesman saying the troops fired on this…

  Jan 28, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Day Bright With Sunshine

  At Barack Obama’s inauguration, when the Rev. Joseph Lowery began his benediction by quoting the third and final stanza of James Weldon Johnson’s poem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” he provided the historical memory for this historic occasion. I recognized the words immediately and was taken back to the late 1940s and the Sunday afternoons…

  By Julius Lester Jan 21, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Let Obama Be Obama

  Pity President Obama and his speechwriters, for they are cursed with reputations of great skill and talent as wordsmiths. Imagine the weight they labor under as they begin each speech, look at the blank screen or page, and say: “How can we top ourselves?” No matter what they do, however, many people will say their…

  By Noam Neusner Jan 21, 2009 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Recognizing Ourselves in One Another

  More than all the eloquent phrases and the snippets of wisdom that marked President Obama’s inaugural address, I remain in the thrall of words he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial just two days earlier: “[I]f we could just recognize ourselves in one another… maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process.” Obama…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 21, 2009 | 4 min read