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
Israel’s War With Hezbollah Was Not a Failure
According to the final report released this week by the government-appointed Winograd Commission, Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah consisted of little but failures. For this Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was to blame, Defense Minister Amir Peretz was to blame, the Israeli military was to blame, everybody was to blame — and since the commission’s members…
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Opinion Bring Civil Rights Enforcement Out of the Shadows
More than 40 years ago, Congress banned most forms of job bias in almost all places of employment across the United States, through a sweeping law known as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the same time, whether cynically or due to a political compromise, it created a weak system for…
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Opinion Agencies Must Gird Themselves For a Recession
As Americans increasingly wonder whether the nation will fall into a full-blown recession, many of us are considering the deleterious effect such a development would have on Jewish organizational life. While the complex and caring American Jewish community has survived numerous economic cycles, this time around there are some significant differences. First, non-profit organizations —…
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Opinion The Siege of Gaza Has Failed
There are times we are drawn to reject that which is obvious. If the answer’s so simple, how can it be true? Anyone would have known it, so it can’t be right. For example: Israel’s sealing of the Gaza borders and its withholding of fuel and electricity from Gaza was a stupid act. In retrospect,…
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Opinion Fear Factor
Please read our clarification of this editorial here. When the dust settles, the uproar over Barack Obama’s religious beliefs will have taught us little about the candidate and his loyalties that we don’t already know. If we look closely, however, we can learn a great deal about American Jews and their anxieties. More pointedly, we…
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Opinion How an Economy Fails
It was encouraging to hear President Bush and the congressional Democratic leadership promising this week to work together on an emergency economic rescue plan. Our hope is that they will act quickly, before the economy slips into recession. Our fear is that the effort will bog down in ideological posturing, leaving the rest of us…
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Opinion Debating Stimulus
The president and the congressional leaders appeared last week to have agreed in principle on a stimulus package of some $150 billion, or about 1% of the Gross Domestic Product, which should be enough to get a lot of people back to work. The two parties agree in broad terms on a package combining tax…
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Letters January 25, 2008
School Is True to Torah In Banning Gay Couples The Yeshivah of Flatbush behaved properly in denying a reunion invitation to the partner of a homosexual graduate (“Gay Alumni of Brooklyn Yeshiva Fight for Right To Bring Partners to Reunion,” January 18). The institution prides itself on instilling in its students the values of the…
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Opinion Our Museum Problem
Ground was broken in September for a vastly expanded Museum of American Jewish History on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. What is now basically a one-room exhibit sharing space with the historic Congregation Mikveh Israel will soon be a multi-level complex that will stand as a major tourist attraction alongside Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and…
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Opinion Capitalism in Crisis
The fallout of America’s sub-prime mortgage crisis goes beyond the economic realm. More than even its military failures in Iraq, the decline in America’s economic fortunes has damaged its global standing, as well as the attractiveness of its political and economic model in the eyes of many Europeans. Even for sympathetic observers, the events that…
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Opinion What Makes a President?
Let us speak of political virtues. There’s oratorical skill, long since recognized as a major asset, obviously a Barack Obama strength. Here’s how Aristotle frames the matter in his “Rhetoric” (Book One, Chapter Two): “Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal…
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