Opinion

• Opinion

  Our Troops Need Reform Rabbis

  In 1916, at the age of 15 and just a decade after landing at Ellis Island, my father enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served with distinction for 35 years, retiring as a lieutenant colonel. After graduating college, I, too, joined the service, taking a commission in the infantry. I served for 28 years, including…

  By Benjamin Abramowitz

  3 min read
• Opinion

  What Zionism Was Not Supposed To Be

  There was scarcely time to grieve before the event itself receded and the eight young men who were killed in the horrid attack in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva (as also those who were wounded) were transformed into symbols, and then from symbols into launching pads for all manner of political argument. It is almost always…

  By Leonard Fein Mar 13, 2008 | 4 min read
• Letters

  March 21, 2008

  Knesset Was Right To Enact Smoking Ban According to Israeli government statistics, smoking is responsible for 1,800 deaths in Israel every year (“Israelis Fume Over Smoking Ban on Army Bases,” February 29/March 7). That number far exceeds the 1,200 deaths claimed by terrorist attacks since the outbreak of first intifada. To stem the epidemic of…

  Mar 13, 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

• Opinion

  Murder in the Yeshiva

  Last week’s terrorist attack on a religious seminary in Jerusalem was a crime against humanity, not an act of war under any civilized norm. No legitimate moral code can sanction the deliberate mass murder of civilians — to say nothing of students sitting in school, steeped in their studies. And this was no ordinary school….

  Mar 13, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Democrats’ Race To Lose

  The sharp racial division among Democratic primary voters in Mississippi this week serves as a stark reminder of the pitfalls that lie ahead for Democrats as they slog toward the November presidential election. African American voters gave Barack Obama fully 92% of their votes, while Hillary Clinton won no less than 70% of the white…

  Mar 13, 2008 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Spitzer Has Sinned, But It’s Our Sex Obsession That’s Criminal

  When Eliot Spitzer was my research assistant in the 1980s, he was a young man of great brilliance, high integrity, conservative demeanor and enormous promise. It pains me deeply to see him brought down so far, and so quickly, by private sexual misconduct. I think somewhat less of him now than I did before I…

  By Alan M. Dershowitz Mar 13, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Sad Bad Story of Governor Spitzer

  “I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong,” Eliot Spitzer said. The obvious question is just why or how a highly intelligent man like Spitzer worked his way into such a situation. What follows is my own…

  By Gus Tyler Mar 12, 2008 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  U.N. Border Force May Be All That Can Stop Chaos in Gaza

  For months Israel has criticized Egypt’s inability to seal off its border with Gaza, and without a doubt the border has been penetrated by tunnels and smugglers. But as the Egyptian ambassador to Washington pointed out to me the other day, it is not an easy task to seal that border and, in fact, Israel…

  By Edward Walker Mar 6, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Is a Cheap Housekeeper Worth Your Principles?

  While the presidential contest between the eventual Democratic nominee and John McCain promises a political debate rich in contrasts, we will hear not one meaningful word of debate over what may be the most interesting and pervasive domestic policy challenge of our time: immigration. In a nation of roughly 300 million, close to 40 million…

  By Noam Neusner Mar 6, 2008 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  America Is Walking Away From Fighting Hate in Europe

  A successful American initiative to train European police to respond to hate crimes is in danger — not from European nations, who have embraced the groundbreaking effort, but from the negligence of our own State Department. Five years ago, alarmed by a dramatic increase in violent antisemitic incidents, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in…

  By Andrew Baker Mar 6, 2008 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Kids Are Alright

  Fears of American Jewry disappearing, drifting into a velvet oblivion of assimilation, have given rise to a cottage industry of research, outreach and alarm-ringing in recent years. Most of this activity is aimed at maintaining the loyalty of the next generation of Jews, to save them from vanishing from the fold. It’s a complex job;…

  Mar 6, 2008 | 3 min read