Opinion

• Letters

  January 9, 2009

  Warren Pick Doesn’t Speak to This American Would you explain again how honoring Rick Warren at Barack Obama’s inauguration is, as your editorial put it, “speaking to all Americans” (“Praying With Rev. Warren,” January 2)? For whom will he be praying? And what will he pray for — our conversion? It’s one thing to work…

  4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  For Sderot, Help Is Not on the Way

  Living near Gaza can be a traumatic experience. Over the past six years, thousands of rockets and mortar rounds have been launched across the border into Israel. On a bad day, every few hours there is a bang, or a number of bangs. One does not know where the next rocket will land. Now that…

  By Martin van Creveld Dec 24, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  We Are All Madoff’s Enablers

  I got to know Bernie Madoff through his service to Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business. Until news of the scandal broke, he served as chairman of our board. I, and other faculty members, worked closely with him on an academic committee, meeting frequently at his now-infamous Midtown office. He is charming, soft-spoken and…

  By Moses L. Pava Dec 24, 2008 | 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 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

  Bidding Bush Adieu, Gladly

  Many on the political right are dreading Barack Obama’s inauguration. But for all the rhetoric that issued from the Jewish right about the dangers a Democratic victory would pose to Israel during the past year, can any conservatives honestly say that they’re particularly pleased with President Bush’s recent Middle East policies? Sure, there are a…

  By Jonathan S. Tobin Dec 24, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Cringing at Madoff, and Counting Cabinet Jews

  Let’s say it’s the day the Earth stands still, or UFOs have landed all over the place and disgorged mean-spirited aliens. You are alone in a strange city, devastation is everywhere, and all you have in your possession is a local telephone book. You try 911, but there’s no answer. What’s your next move? Here…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 24, 2008 | 4 min read
• Letters

  Jan 2, 2009

  Court Didn’t Mandate Hebron House Eviction In your December 19 editorial “Hebron and the Rule of Law,” regarding the evictions of Jews from Hebron’s Beit HaShalom, you write: “In November the court authorized the army to evict the squatters. The troops went in to enforce the law.” That is misleading. The Supreme Court did not…

  Dec 24, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Praying With Rev. Warren

  When Barack Obama takes office January 20, he will inherit crises on a scale no president has faced in living memory. America has gotten itself into a very deep hole, not just in finance and the economy but on the battlefields of the Middle East, in the oceans and dirty skies, on factory floors, in…

  Dec 24, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A New Low in Turtle Bay

  The threadbare honor of the United Nations has reached a new low with the misbehavior of the General Assembly president, Miguel D’Escoto Brockman of Nicaragua. Ignoring the diplomatic etiquette expected in his post, D’Escoto, a priest and former Sandinista official, repeatedly describes Israeli policies as a “version” of apartheid. He recently urged the U.N. to…

  Dec 24, 2008 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Other People’s Money

  A friend recalled this scene from decades ago: The president of a small Orthodox synagogue in New York had apparently absconded with about $2 million from the congregation, a huge sum in those days. But since he had not yet been formally charged or arrested, he was free to attend Shabbat services. Which he did….

  Dec 18, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Tradition and (50 Years of) Change

  Few books have an iconic status specifically for Conservative Jews, but it is fair to say that “Tradition and Change: The Development of Conservative Judaism” is one of them. This year marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of this landmark volume of essays on movement ideology, edited by the late Rabbi Mordecai Waxman. For…

  By Elliot Cosgrove Dec 18, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Clichés of Our Lives

  At a recent bat mitzvah party, as the Village People’s “YMCA” played, my wife remarked to me that it may be time to retire that unique piece of American kitsch. Give it a rest for a decade. After that, if we think it’s still amusing to spell out letters with our arms, fine, bring it…

  By Noam Neusner Dec 18, 2008 | 4 min read