Opinion

• Opinion

  The Wrong Guys

  Critics of Israel often complain that when they try to speak out on the Middle East, they are effectively silenced: Jewish organizations and individual Jewish activists target them for public scorn and blacklisting, denying them an audience and delegitimizing them. The message put out is that those who fail to toe the official pro-Israel line…

  4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Integrated Schools Colored Our Worlds

  Opponents of a recent Supreme Court ruling that limits the use of race for school integration programs have focused primarily on how it will impact our nation’s minority schoolchildren. And so they should. The court’s decision in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 will accelerate a disturbing pattern of racial…

  By Andrew Furman Aug 22, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  There’s a Price for Paying Ransom for Hostages

  For all the headlines they grab, the kidnapping of European and Asian hostages in Iraq and Afghanistan is far from the worst of the many woes afflicting the two countries. But the damage caused by these incidents goes far beyond individual human tragedy, mostly thanks to the hapless reactions of the victims’ governments. Their willingness…

  By Eric Frey Aug 22, 2007 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel is not deliberately killing journalists in Gaza. But it does bear responsibility for their deaths

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Some Methodists Are on a Mission To Demonize Israel

  In 2004, the United Methodist Church passed a resolution calling for “members of each congregation to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from all perspectives.” The call for impartiality by the largest mainline Protestant church in the United States was a laudable one, but it has since become clear that for some Methodists fair-mindedness is not on…

  By Yitzhak Santis Aug 22, 2007 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  One Thing New Orleans’s Poor Haven’t Lost

  As a society, we suffer from attention deficit disorder. One minute it’s Iraq, the next it’s Paris Hilton, then on to the mine disaster and thence to Darfur. We are bombarded by snippets, like a manic bumper car jostled now in this direction, now in that. Oh, we are engaged after a fashion, but our…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 22, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Our Topsy Turvy Times

  Once upon a time when the sun never set on the British Empire, the crown jewel in the imperial crown was a country called India. There were many agricultural products that the empire derived from India, including opium. When the power loom for weaving textiles made its appearance, the native Indians started up a lively…

  By Gus Tyler Aug 21, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Roots of the Housing Crisis

  Foreclosures of homes are the big pain of the day. Millions of families who once proudly boasted that they had reached a level of earnings that allowed them to buy a house are now squirming as lending institutions threaten foreclosure. What happened? The good old days came and departed. Families, mainly middle class, who could…

  By Gus Tyler Aug 21, 2007 | 2 min read
• Letters

  August 17, 2007

  Keep Debate Over Shul Renovation Civil As president of the board of directors of Holy Blossom Temple, I write this letter to let readers know that the board firmly supports our senior rabbi, John Moscowitz, and the role he has played thus far in our renewal process (“Renovation of Storied Toronto Synagogue Opens Cracks in…

  Aug 17, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Mortgages and the Jewish Question

  For most of us, the current crisis in America’s housing market is a distant echo, a barely understood series of headlines that might as well be in Greek, in a section of the newspaper often left unread. But the crisis is real. It threatens hundreds of thousands of American families who are in danger of…

  Aug 15, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Time for Uncertainty

  Elul, the last month of the traditional Jewish calendar, began this past week, straddling as usual the end of August and the beginning of September. It is a harsh season, when the first joys of summer have worn off and the comfort of fall is still far ahead. It is a time of searing heat…

  Aug 15, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Planting Tomatoes on a Hilltop Overlooking Shechem

  ‘Let’s make a garden,” my 22-year-old daughter Ayelet suggested during my weekly visit to their little home in Yitzhar, a Jewish community near the ancient city of Shechem, or Nablus as it’s called today. Nestled in the valley between two mountains, Eval and Grezim, Shechem is the place where Jacob bought property, where Joseph is…

  By Moshe Dann Aug 15, 2007 | 2 min read