Opinion

• Opinion

  Shut Down Army Programs for Diaspora Youth

  On my last trip to the United States, I met a young man who told me that he wanted to serve in the Israeli army. I told him to go to hell. Not in such blunt terms, of course. But my response caught the guy by surprise. After all, I’m the author of a memoir…

  By Haim Watzman

  3 min read
• Opinion

  Fund More Than Just Aliyah Efforts

  Born in Israel, I was raised to believe in the absolute primacy of Jewish life in Israel and in aliyah as the only legitimate choice for Jews living a life of exile outside it. It is only as a teenager that I encountered a somewhat different view of aliyah. Having been sent to the United…

  By Einat Wilf Aug 3, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  From the Hills of Jerusalem, Let Freedom Swing

  Let me tell you why the terrorists are going to lose. At the end of June, I left Jerusalem and drove past Tel Aviv to the Baptist Village, where I watched the second game of the Israel Baseball League’s inaugural season. There were players from the Dominican Republic, Australia, Israel and America, good Jewish boys…

  By Greg Tepper Aug 3, 2007 | 3 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’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Let the Bands March Into Baghdad

  A State Department bulletin recently reported that “there are substantially more people employed as musicians in [Department of] Defense bands than in the entire foreign service,” meaning the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development. My hunch is the State Department did not intend that factoid as a boast. Rather, it meant…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 3, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  August 3, 2007

  Jews Live in Deadwood Fast Forward writer Andrew Muchin asserts that “no Jews are known to live in Deadwood today” (“Pioneers in the Black Hills,” July 20). Not being completely sure if that was the case, I decided to dig a little deeper. I called David Lusk of AllMedia, Inc., a purveyor of Jewish mailing…

  Aug 3, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Israel’s Hidden Crisis

  Israel faces no end of threats and challenges, any one of which is capable of fueling endless discussion — not to mention anxiety — among Jews and gentiles around the globe. There is one challenge, however, that’s rarely discussed above a whisper outside Israel, because of its extreme sensitivity. You might call it the hidden…

  Aug 3, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Kids, Health and Politics

  Current polling shows that the American voters’ disgust with President Bush is nearly matched by their disappointment in the new Congress they elected last fall. A half-year into their term, the Democrats now controlling Capitol Hill have failed to make any major changes in the way business gets done. People seem to feel there’s no…

  Aug 2, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Manipulating the Market

  In the closing days of July, the stock market began to sag. No one seems to know why. We are informed that the American economy is in good shape. We are also advised that the global economy is also in good shape. Some theorize that it has to do with bad loans on housing. But,…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 31, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  July 27, 2007

  Circumcision Offers Many Health Benefits A July 20 article incorrectly reports that the current rate of circumcision in the United States is 57% (“Activists Up Efforts To Cut Circumcision Out of Bris Ritual”). Data released in 2006 by the Center for Disease Control showed that 80% of American males are circumcised; for non-Hispanic whites, the…

  Jul 27, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Don’t Mourn, Organize

  As disheartening as it has been to watch the stain of anti-Israel boycott fever spreading through Great Britain’s trade union movement, the greater legacy of the episode may well be the angry rise of American labor in defense of the Jewish state. Two of Britain’s most influential unions, the public service union Unison and the…

  Jul 27, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  An Early Jewish-Black Marriage

  In America, at the present time, a Jewish-black intermarriage is not uncommon. One of the oldest such marriages in recorded history was that of Moses to an Ethiopian woman named Zipporah. Moses’ sister Miriam and his brother Aaron were quite annoyed by the marriage and did not hesitate to express their disapproval. When a male…

  By Gus Tyler Jul 27, 2007 | < 1 min read