In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
-
Opinion
Why Obama Is Colorblind and McCain Is Ageless
Back in March, in the midst of the furor over controversial remarks by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama called for a national conversation on race. “Race,” said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, “is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now.” But since that time, Obama has shut down the…
-
Opinion No Justice, No Peace
Harsh things have been said about the new document on antisemitism issued this month by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), “Vigilance Against Anti-Jewish Bias in the Pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian Peace.” The document is a revised version of a church draft completed just a month earlier, following months of discussion with Jewish agencies. But where the first…
-
Opinion We’re Making Deals
Suddenly, after years of diplomatic stalemate on every front, Israel is talking deals, deals, deals, all up and down its famously rough neighborhood. Jerusalem is talking — indirectly, through third parties — with three enemies that were off-limits just months ago. It’s talking with Hamas, via Egypt, about a Gaza cease-fire to halt the shelling…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Letters June 27, 2008
Sobibor Wasn’t Polish A June 13 Shmooze article on Holocaust-themed graphic novels refers to Sobibor as a “Polish extermination camp” (“Comic Explores Shoah”). After a relatively long absence of such mindlessly insulting and history-falsifying nonsense, we were shocked to again find it again in print — and all the more so in a Jewish newspaper…
-
Opinion The Kind of Friend Israel Needs
President Bush was in this part of the world last month, and I had the opportunity to attend two of his speeches, one at the Knesset, the other at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el Sheikh. On both occasions I found myself standing up and clapping for a president whose feelings of friendship for…
-
Opinion Then They Came for the Bahai
In mastering the knowlege that even bigotry is relative and comes in gradations, I was a premature pupil. I learned this lesson when I was only 10. In 1977, in an eclectic neighborhood in Tehran, my Jewish family lived on a narrow, wooded alley in what was then an upscale area, alongside two other Jewish…
-
Opinion Beware the Right’s Rise in Hungary
Hungary is home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in all of Europe, some 100,000 strong. Budapest, the capital, features more Jewish schools, synagogues, theaters and social organizations than any other European city east of Paris. For all its vibrancy, though, the second-largest Jewish community in continental Europe now finds itself in the…
-
Opinion The Song Remains the Same
Among my friends, there are several who travel back and forth to Israel four or five times a year, sometimes even more. Perhaps the magic wears off, the trip becomes entirely routine. I manage one or two trips a year, and though there have by now been many trips, stretching back more than half a…
-
Opinion Bush’s Bluffing Has Made Mideast Peace a Bad Bet
From Taba to Tony, from the Rose Garden to Riyadh, from Geneva to Gaza — in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, no American president has been presented with more opportunities for reaching a true and lasting peace than George W. Bush. But with just a half a year to go before he leaves the…
-
Opinion Courting the Gentile Vote
America’s Jewish community has a clinical obsession with Israel-related issues. The Israel-related mutterings of political candidates are picked over like the stool of future Chinese emperors. If a candidate forgets a certain phrase, or ventures even a slightly extreme reading of American’s Middle East policy, either too left or too right, such is cause for…
-
Opinion How To Reach ‘Generation Save the [Insert Cause Here]’
I don’t normally crusade for political causes. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever been moved to speak out publicly. Granted, I’m only 17 years old, but it’s a milestone nonetheless. I didn’t think it would come to this when I went to hear a recent lecture by Ali Abunimah, a co-founder of…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward A whites-only, no-Jews community says it’s found a legal loophole. A Jewish lawmaker in Pennsylvania wants to close it.
- 2
Film & TV So, what’s the deal with the honey scene in ‘Marty Supreme?’
- 3
Culture Why do Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas?
- 4
Opinion What if Donald Trump puts his name on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Israel suspends operations of multiple humanitarian organizations in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders
-
Fast Forward Absolute Bagels is back — and Jewish New Yorkers are lining up in droves
-
Music How I found freedom in a Passover Seder, an amp and a red Fender Duo-Sonic guitar
-
Fast Forward In a first, President Donald Trump to receive Israel Prize, the country’s top civilian honor
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
