Opinion

• Opinion

  How Jimmy Carter Almost Derailed Peace With Egypt

  The unique synthesis of activism, idealism and ignorance that drove Jimmy Carter to meet with Hamas in late April is nothing new for the former president. It dates back to well before his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” — all the way back to his time in office, when he nearly derailed the incipient…

  By Yossi Alpher

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Will Smith’s Lesson for Jerusalem

  Hollywood star Will Smith is reportedly planning to make a movie on Taharqa, a black warrior king from Nubia who ruled over Egypt during the 7th-century BCE. The film is likely to focus on issues of black pride, but if Smith and his scriptwriters do their homework well, “The Last Pharaoh” should also be of…

  By Eric Frey Apr 17, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Truth of the Matter

  Harvard’s motto is “Veritas” — truth. The motto of Brandeis is “Truth Unto Its Innermost Parts”; Yale’s is “Lux et Veritas,” light and truth (and the same for the University of Indiana); and Johns Hopkins goes with “Veritas Vos Liberabit,” the truth shall make you free. My favorite, however, is the motto of Harry Potter’s…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 17, 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 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

  April 25, 2008

  Make Seder for Adults I enjoyed the East Village Mamele’s April 11 Fast Forward column, but it raises some issues that she probably did not intend to raise (“A Kid-Friendly Seder”). Being a regular at our local Conservative synagogue and having belonged to several other synagogues over the years, I have become very concerned about…

  Apr 17, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Diplomacy, Carter-Style

  Amateur historians like to say that Jimmy Carter is much better as an ex-president than he was as president. That gets his presidency about right; he’s usually ranked near the bottom, slightly ahead of Millard Fillmore but trailing Herbert Hoover. The assessment, however, is too kind to the Carter ex-presidency. During nearly three decades as…

  Apr 17, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Legacy of the Ghetto

  This week marks the 65th anniversary of a seminal moment in the horror that was the Holocaust: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. It was on the first night of Passover in 1943 that a tiny band of Polish Jews, teenagers and young adults, armed mostly with pistols and gasoline bombs, launched a hopeless counterattack against the…

  Apr 17, 2008 | 2 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Getting Serious About Love

  In a recent sermon, up-and-coming rabbi David Ingber complained, “You never hear about love in Jewish newspapers.” Part of the reason for this is, of course, that love is rarely newsworthy; crisis is just better press. But it is true, in the Jewish world, that religiously, intellectually and culturally, love isn’t serious. Some of this…

  By Jay Michaelson Apr 17, 2008 | 6 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Leader of American Hasidic Dynasty Leaves the States

  When most people think of Hasidic dynasties, what come to mind are the consonant-rich Ukrainian villages after which so many are named, like Vizhnitz, Munkacz and Skver. American cities have also produced Hasidic lineages, the most famous of which has been based in Boston for a half-century and led by the charismatic Levi Yitzchak Horowitz….

  By Michael Casper Apr 17, 2008 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Retailer Takes Caring for Employees to New Heights

  If you are an employee at a leading Florida furniture chain and have a bone to pick, you might take your grievance to human resources. Then again, you might talk over the matter over with the company’s priest, its minister, or even its rabbi. It’s not news that workplaces today look a lot different from…

  By Marissa Brostoff Apr 17, 2008 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Introducing Some of the Jewish World’s Newest Rabbis

  Like many rabbinical candidates, Sara Brandes, who is about to graduate from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, originally hadn’t planned to become a rabbi. But during a year she spent in Israel after college, she discovered that her interests — which included psychology and religion — could be combined in a single job. “I…

  Apr 17, 2008 | 7 min read
• 
  Opinion

  For Israel’s Sake, Moderate American Jews Must Find Their Voice

  In just a few short years, the “two-state solution” has gone from presumed conclusion to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to an increasingly distant hope. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has himself said that without such a deal, “the State of Israel is finished.” By the dozens, Israeli dignitaries solemnly warn: The window is closing on a two-state…

  By Jeremy Ben-Ami Apr 15, 2008 | 5 min read