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
A Vote for the Hungry
One of Washington’s nastiest legislative deadlocks came to an end last week when Congress voted convincingly to override a presidential veto and enact the five-year funding package known as the Farm Bill. The bill provides some $300 billion in food stamps, nutrition programs, foreign aid and conservation programs, along with perennially controversial growers’ subsidies. The…
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Opinion What Kind of Interviewer Confuses Hamas and Hummus?
They took us down winding stone stairs and through long corridors, ostensibly to have some make-up dabbed on our noses for the cameras, in fact to meet the interviewer and test his disguise. We confronted a tall, blond-ish man in his thirties, dressed in leather and studs, his face heavily powdered, his arms and chest…
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Opinion Time for a Miracle
Ehud Olmert’s stock with the Israeli public has fallen so low these days that virtually anything Olmert says or does is taken to be a cynical ploy to save his job. That’s a pity, because the Israeli prime minister has had some very good ideas of late. One of his best ideas surfaced in a…
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Opinion The Gift of Freedom
Most of us seldom give much thought to the Fourth of July. It’s one of the most important holidays on our national calendar, one of the very few that is observed simultaneously by all Americans without regard to faith, origin or regional whim. It is, some say, the only holiday specifically dedicated to celebrating this…
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Letters July 4, 2008
Not All Prisoners Are ‘Underbelly of Society’ Rabbi Lon Moskowitz is quoted in a June 13 article as saying, “We work with the underbelly of society, the spiritually void, the morally empty” (“Demand for Kosher Cuisine Swells Ranks of Jewish Prison Chaplains”). I am a 64-year-old inmate in the federal penal system, and I don’t…
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Opinion In the End, Only Candor Will Bring Peace
First, the bad news: As we all learned to say years ago — even before the year 2000 and the outbreak of the second intifada — Israel has no partner for peace. Or so, at least, Israelis believe. For Ariel Sharon, the absence of a credible partner was a strategic assessment, leading directly the calamitous…
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Opinion Europe’s Shameful Honoring of Vilnius
The European Union has designated Vilnius as the “European Capital of Culture” for 2009. It is a recognition Lithuania does not deserve. Vilnius, with its beautiful old town and venerable history, is without a doubt charming. Workers are busy restoring churches and palaces, and the first-time visitor is likely to be smitten by the postcard-perfect…
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Opinion A Synagogue Is No Place To Perform Richard Strauss
In 1933, composer Richard Strauss was appointed by Joseph Göbbels as president of the Reichsmusikkammer, or German State Music Bureau. In 1945, Strauss declared that the Allied bombing of the Hoftheater, his favorite opera house in Munich, was “the greatest catastrophe that has ever disturbed my life.” And now, six decades later, Strauss is being…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Fast Forward Hasan Piker favors Hamas, is pushing Dems to be anti-Israel — and wants Jews not to worry about him
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Fast Forward US soldier charged for threatening to ‘kill every single Jew’ inside of a synagogue
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Fast Forward J.D. Salinger asked publishers to remove references to his Jewish heritage, newly surfaced letters reveal
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Sports NBA coach Steve Kerr: ‘Israel sought revenge for Oct. 7 and now 72,000 Palestinians have been killed’