Opinion

• Opinion

  The Pipeline War

  Scenes of Russian tanks rumbling through Georgia, the former Soviet republic on the shore of the Black Sea, have touched hearts and consciences around the world, and rightly so. The bloody Russian incursion brings to mind other Russian tanks rolling into Prague in 1968 and Budapest in 1956, crushing hopeful sparks of democracy while the…

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Terrorism and the Lone Gunman

  Hossam Dwayyat, 31, a Palestinian construction worker from East Jerusalem, went on a rampage July 2 and drove his bulldozer into a bus and several cars, killing three Israeli women and wounding dozens more before he was shot dead. Police quickly determined that he had acted alone and had no links to terrorist organizations. Rather,…

  Aug 14, 2008 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Judging Character — And Kashrut

  The Babylonian Talmud features a lengthy, oft-quoted discussion of the liability incurred by an individual whose ox gores another person’s livestock. If the ox has never gored before, the owner may claim it was an unforeseen accident and pay only half the injured party’s losses. Likewise for the second and third offense. With a fourth…

  Aug 7, 2008 | 5 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

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  Opinion

  A King Who Set Us Free From Our Own History

  Forty-five years ago this month, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the preeminent speeches of American lore, his classic “I Have A Dream” message. Among the 300,000 who joined in the March on Washington were a disproportionate number of Jews, including rabbis, professors and social servants. They had marched with the young preacher…

  By Ben Kamin Aug 7, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Civil War in Gaza Isn’t in Israel’s Interests

  When a bomb exploded in the Shaja’iyyah district of Gaza last month, killing four Hamas operatives and a 5-year-old girl, Hamas blamed Fatah, and moved violently against its remaining Gazan enclaves. Fatah forces then pursued retribution against Hamas in the West Bank. Another round of intra-Palestinian conflict and bloodletting ensued, with the leading pro-Fatah family…

  By Daniel Levy Aug 7, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  On This Tisha B’Av, Remember Hiroshima

  While in Japan earlier this summer for a summit of religious leaders, I took a bullet train to Hiroshima to bear witness to the tragic history of the city. Arriving in the modern train station and walking through the city, it is hard to imagine that it had been the site of complete devastation 63…

  By Marla Feldman Aug 7, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Singing in Israel’s Ears Till She Opens Her Eyes

  Love, as we all know, is a many-splendored thing. Whatever that means. Actually, “many-splendored” calls to mind “irritable bowel syndrome,” one of those terms you make up as a catch-all for something you can’t explain. And love is difficult if not impossible to explain or even define, as witness the range between Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 7, 2008 | 4 min read
• Letters

  August 15, 2008

  Don’t Judge Orthodoxy By One Alleged Mistake An August 1 article about Shmarya Rosenberg’s anti-Orthodox blog terms FailedMessiah.com “one of the essential stops on the Jewish blogosphere” (“Blogger Focuses on Orthodox Foibles”). If I understand correctly, Rosenberg jettisoned Orthodoxy because 20 years after seeking help for Ethiopian Jewry from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he discovered the…

  Aug 7, 2008 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Olmert’s Loss, And Israel’s

  Ehud Olmert’s announcement that he will resign come September, driven from office under a cloud of suspected corruption, virtually guarantees him a place in Israeli history as the prime minister who failed. He’s already derided as an accidental leader who stumbled into office after his charismatic predecessor had a stroke, the bumbler who presided over…

  Jul 31, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Wages of Indecision

  Blaming the Jews for the world’s troubles is one of the oldest of spectator sports. Lately, though, the practice has been refined to a level of theatrical fantasy approaching high art. In November 2000 there were those few thousand confused Jewish seniors from Palm Beach County who threw American democracy into chaos with their butterfly…

  Jul 31, 2008 | 3 min read
• Letters

  August 8, 2008

  Clinton Might Not Like The Seward Analogy Rabbi Menachem Genack argues that Senator Barack Obama should follow the example of Abraham Lincoln, who appointed political rival Senator William Seward as his secretary of state, and select his own rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, as his running mate (“The Man From Illinois and the Senator From New York,” August…

  Jul 31, 2008 | 3 min read