In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Beyond ‘Evenhandedness’
There has been a lot of talk about the need for the Obama administration to engage on Israeli-Palestinian issues early and often, unlike the Bush administration. This can be a productive approach, particularly in light of the split in the Palestinian camp, as long as expectations are not raised too high. The primary purpose of…
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Opinion A Charter for Failure
Michael Steinhardt has spent much of the past two decades funding some of the most important efforts to promote Jewish identity. From Jewish education initiatives to the free trips provided by the Birthright Israel program, the hedge fund mega-millionaire has helped prop up a host of worthy causes and been rightly celebrated as a visionary…
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Opinion Hillary Can Finish What She Started
The way then-president Bill Clinton told it, Edgar Bronfman had “buttonholed Hillary.” The president, speaking at a World Jewish Congress gala at Manhattan’s Pierre Hotel in September 2000, was referring to a meeting in April 1996 between Bronfman and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. The WJC president had “buttonholed” the first lady at a fundraiser…
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Opinion Why Israel Is Losing the Liberals
You squirm, you wriggle, you deny, you denounce the methodology, but eventually there’s no escape: The data show quite decisively that here in America, Israel is considerably more popular among conservatives than among liberals. The most recent confirmation of that comes from the highly regarded Global Attitudes Project of the Pew Research Center for the…
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Letters February 13, 2009
Jewish-Catholic Ties Don’t Face Apocalypse Your February 6 editorial “Betraying Vatican II” is mostly fair, but I think it does boil over into hyperbole in places. First, all Pope Benedict XVI has done is rescind the excommunication order for the four bishops from the Society of St. Pius X. Neither they nor their followers have…
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Opinion Uprooting the Rose
The latest issue of the glossy magazine published by Brandeis University’s Office of the Arts includes a colorful, four-page spread about the goings-on at the Rose Art Museum — exhibitions, symposia, concerts and gallery tours with visiting artists. “The arts electrify the continuum of thought, experience, and action that makes Brandeis a global institution,” writes…
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Opinion Saving the Agency
America’s federated Jewish charities are stumbling into dangerous territory, risking their own mission and the health of the broader Jewish community, as they consider a plan to revamp their funding of international Jewish needs. The new plan supposedly broadens the reach of the federated charity system and boosts its appeal to donors by allowing more…
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Opinion Betraying Vatican II
When 2,200 bishops from around the world overwhelmingly adopted the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in October 1965, they transformed a relationship of animus and suspicion that had existed for centuries between the Roman Catholic Church and its Jewish forebears. Jews were no longer considered the killers of Jesus Christ. Catholics were no longer…
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Opinion The Mitchell Mission
Embarking on his mission as President Obama’s special Middle East peace negotiator, George Mitchell carries a burden of hopes and expectations almost too weighty for one pair of shoulders. For nearly a decade, politicians, diplomats and ordinary people around the world have watched in alarm as the Oslo peace process dissolved into relentless violence. Ever…
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Opinion Bad War, Good Soldiers
I recently bumped into a mild-mannered, bookish paratrooper I know. He had come home to Jerusalem for a short weekend after spending two weeks in Gaza. I didn’t know what to expect when I asked him what he thought of the war. I thought I might hear him echo my own thoughts, and say that…
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Opinion A How Many State Solution?
The Gaza war ended with Hamas losing militarily but surviving politically. It is now clear that Hamas is here to stay in Gaza. Hamas’s survival and the concomitant issue of delivering reconstruction aid to Gaza will probably provide the focus for the early months of new Mideast envoy George Mitchell’s mission. For broader undertakings, Mitchell…
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
In Case You Missed It
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Culture The manosphere says women owe their husbands sex — Judaism says the opposite
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Fast Forward Georgia’s Jewish senator called his newly minted GOP opponent an antisemite. Why?
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Fast Forward Alex Bores’ supporters disagree on Israel. They agree on him.
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Fast Forward Organizers of London Israeli real estate fair apologize after West Bank properties surface despite denials