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 King Who Set Us Free From Our Own History
Forty-five years ago this month, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered one of the preeminent speeches of American lore, his classic “I Have A Dream” message. Among the 300,000 who joined in the March on Washington were a disproportionate number of Jews, including rabbis, professors and social servants. They had marched with the young preacher…
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Opinion Civil War in Gaza Isn’t in Israel’s Interests
When a bomb exploded in the Shaja’iyyah district of Gaza last month, killing four Hamas operatives and a 5-year-old girl, Hamas blamed Fatah, and moved violently against its remaining Gazan enclaves. Fatah forces then pursued retribution against Hamas in the West Bank. Another round of intra-Palestinian conflict and bloodletting ensued, with the leading pro-Fatah family…
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Opinion On This Tisha B’Av, Remember Hiroshima
While in Japan earlier this summer for a summit of religious leaders, I took a bullet train to Hiroshima to bear witness to the tragic history of the city. Arriving in the modern train station and walking through the city, it is hard to imagine that it had been the site of complete devastation 63…
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Opinion Singing in Israel’s Ears Till She Opens Her Eyes
Love, as we all know, is a many-splendored thing. Whatever that means. Actually, “many-splendored” calls to mind “irritable bowel syndrome,” one of those terms you make up as a catch-all for something you can’t explain. And love is difficult if not impossible to explain or even define, as witness the range between Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s…
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Letters August 15, 2008
Don’t Judge Orthodoxy By One Alleged Mistake An August 1 article about Shmarya Rosenberg’s anti-Orthodox blog terms FailedMessiah.com “one of the essential stops on the Jewish blogosphere” (“Blogger Focuses on Orthodox Foibles”). If I understand correctly, Rosenberg jettisoned Orthodoxy because 20 years after seeking help for Ethiopian Jewry from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, he discovered the…
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Opinion Olmert’s Loss, And Israel’s
Ehud Olmert’s announcement that he will resign come September, driven from office under a cloud of suspected corruption, virtually guarantees him a place in Israeli history as the prime minister who failed. He’s already derided as an accidental leader who stumbled into office after his charismatic predecessor had a stroke, the bumbler who presided over…
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Opinion The Wages of Indecision
Blaming the Jews for the world’s troubles is one of the oldest of spectator sports. Lately, though, the practice has been refined to a level of theatrical fantasy approaching high art. In November 2000 there were those few thousand confused Jewish seniors from Palm Beach County who threw American democracy into chaos with their butterfly…
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Letters August 8, 2008
Clinton Might Not Like The Seward Analogy Rabbi Menachem Genack argues that Senator Barack Obama should follow the example of Abraham Lincoln, who appointed political rival Senator William Seward as his secretary of state, and select his own rival, Senator Hillary Clinton, as his running mate (“The Man From Illinois and the Senator From New York,” August…
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Opinion Religion Helps Keep Fighting Spirit Alive
A few hours before Barack Obama arrived in Jerusalem in late July, a Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a rampage around the corner from the Democratic presidential nominee’s hotel. It was the second bulldozer attack in Jerusalem in less than a month, and unlike the first attack in which three Israelis were murdered, this time…
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Opinion The Economic War Against the Palestinians Has Failed
In recent weeks, the Israeli military shut down a series of West Bank charitable and educational organizations affiliated in one way or another with Hamas, even though the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority is apparently incapable of providing these services. Last week, threats by P.A. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad caused Israel to reverse itself in one instance…
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Opinion The Olympics Aren’t Always Fun and Games
Ever hear of a Jewish motocross racer? Neither have I, and I’ve been around sports for almost 50 years and written about Olympics from the Alps to Barcelona. Yet somehow, despite our producing a minuscule number of participants, Jews wind up making news at the Olympic Games. I don’t necessarily mean on the playing fields,…
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