Opinion

• Opinion

  The Kingdom of Judea vs. the State of Israel

  At second blush, it seems the work of a lunatic fringe. First blush, of course, is the actual explosion of the pipe bomb that lightly wounded Professor Ze’ev Sternhell, an internationally renowned political scientist and a winner this year of the Israel Prize. That happened around midnight on Thursday, September 25, just outside Sternhell’s home…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Hekhsher Tzedek’s Law Problem

  The Jewish community has been roiled by the continuing charges against kosher meat giant Agriprocessors. Kosher consumers are angry that practices which are supposed to bring credit to Jewish tradition are instead sullying its image. But Jews have been divided on how to respond. The Conservative movement has proposed a new kind of certification, called…

  By Michael Broyde and Yitzchok Adlerstein Sep 25, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Orthodoxy’s Kosher Crisis

  Over the course of the past five months, the American Jewish community has observed with dismay the gradual unfolding of the Agriprocessors scandal. Agriprocessors may be a private corporation, but as the nation’s leading producer of kosher meat, it is one that operates under the Jewish communal banner. Its actions have been followed closely, not…

  By Eric Yoffie Sep 25, 2008 | 4 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 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

• Opinion

  New Priorities for Tzipi Livni

  Tzipi Livni’s public image, both in Israel and abroad, is most closely associated with the peace talks she has administered in recent months with the Palestinians. And yet, it would be a mistake to assume that the Palestinian track will be her top priority now that she has been elected leader of the Kadima Party….

  By Yossi Alpher Sep 25, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Judaism: Our System of Vocational Education

  Some weeks ago, I concluded a column with these words: …we need to find a compelling way to finish the sentence that begins with the words, “It is important that the Jewish people survive in order to…” In order to what? There is, I believe, one core idea that defines us and could, perhaps, bring…

  By Leonard Fein Sep 25, 2008 | 4 min read
• Letters

  October 3, 2008

  Rally Leaders Failed Us By Excluding Palin I recently attended a Holocaust studies conference where the overriding theme was the failure of Jewish leadership and the Jewish establishment while the Holocaust in Europe was raging. The failure of Jewish conscience and unity — along with the obstructionism of the U.S. State Department and Franklin Delano…

  Sep 25, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Taking Back the Street

  For all its malodorous air of refueling a getaway car, the upcoming federal bailout of Wall Street is a lifesaving emergency operation, and it must go forward. It could become a fat giveaway to the rich, as progressives rightly fear, but it doesn’t have to be. Handled properly, the emergency measures will douse the fire…

  Sep 25, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Other People’s Eggs

  They come to America with altruistic intentions, to help the Jewish people reproduce and, not incidentally, to receive compensation for the enormous risk they take with their bodies. But as Ayelet Bechar shows in her front-page story this week, the growing incidence of young Israeli Jewish women becoming egg donors for infertile American Jewish couples…

  Sep 25, 2008 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Meltdown

  This moment is one of those turning points in history that the old will describe to their grandchildren and that historians will still be debating a century from now. We are witnessing, it appears, the unraveling of America’s economic system, and perhaps the world’s. What follows will not be what was. Perhaps the economy will…

  Sep 18, 2008 | 3 min read
• Letters

  September 26, 2008

  Supporting Stimulus Package Is Pro-Growth In his September 19 column, “Our Economic Echo Chamber,” Noam Neusner unfairly attacks the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, United Jewish Communities and our Jewish community federations for supporting an economic stimulus package now before Congress. The truth is that many in America — and many in the Jewish community…

  Sep 18, 2008 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  Beginning at Midpoint

  It is a curiosity of Jewish tradition that Rosh Hashanah, the New Year holiday, which begins at sundown on September 29, is not actually the start of the traditional calendar year. That comes in the spring, two weeks before Passover, on the first of the lunar month of Nisan, which the Bible calls the first…

  Sep 18, 2008 | 2 min read