In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
-
Opinion
Sub-Prime Protections
Hard on the heels of the sub-prime mortgage crisis that is rattling the world’s financial markets and threatening millions with homelessness, new troubles are brewing in the airline industry, one of the pillars of the economy. It’s getting to the point where flying is as risky as staying in your house. The mortgage crisis, alert…
-
Letters April 18, 2008
Both Clinton, Obama Reached Out in Pa. As one of the rabbis who attended separate meetings in Philadelphia earlier this month with Senator Hillary Clinton’s surrogates and those of Senator Barack Obama, I thought an April 11 article on how the campaigns are engaging the Pennsylvania rabbinical community was incomplete (“Obama Takes Campaign Into Pa….
-
Opinion To Know the Full Meaning of Freedom
Let’s assume that Assaf Wohl’s tongue was stuck firmly in his cheek when he proposed in the mass Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot April 4 that we should get rid of Passover. It’s “all about obsessive cleanliness and bad food,” Wohl wrote, calling it “an unbearable holiday.” Few American Jews will agree. Passover remains, here, the…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion There’s No Good Way Out of Gaza
Hamas-run Gaza now constitutes fully half of Israel’s, and the world’s, Palestinian problem — the more terrorist, Islamist and uncompromising half. Hamas threatens to torpedo any peace agreement the Olmert government reaches with the other half, the West Bank-based, Fatah-run Palestinian Authority. Rocket attacks from Gaza against neighboring Israeli towns and kibbutzim have become routine,…
-
Opinion Flawed Act Will Not Solve Our Immigration Problems
The House of Representatives is poised to ram through in the coming weeks a disastrous piece of legislation dubbed the “Save Act” that will imperil the ability of millions of Americans to work in this country and will waste countless more resources and money on a failed policy. As the disastrous failure of Congress to…
-
Opinion Stop Calling Me an ‘Ultra-Orthodox Jew’
Stop calling me an ultra-Orthodox Jew. “Ultra” — the modifier of choice for a press hawking its smudged cartography of Jewish religious life — has enjoyed a long, wearisome, dubious run, and it isn’t recusing itself from the discourse any time soon. The Jewish religious world occupies a bewilderingly disparate space, to be sure, but…
-
Letters April 11, 2008
Aliyah for Millionaires The idea of giving financial breaks to millionaires in order to encourage their aliyah is sickening in the extreme (“Israel Targets Millionaires in Bid to Up Aliyah,” April 4). These people need tax breaks? Talk about class warfare. I am constantly bombarded by charities who claim they need money for Israeli kids…
-
Opinion Settlement Freeze
A rash of reports coming out of Israel indicates that a spurt of new construction is under way in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The development should be alarming to anyone who cares about Israel’s welfare. It’s a violation of Israel’s public commitments, most of all to the Bush administration. It’s damaging to Israel’s…
-
Opinion The President in Wartime
The Bush administration recently declassified a secret Justice Department memo from 2003 that shows just how serious a threat our democracy faces in the current war on terrorism. Unfortunately, the threat revealed in the memo is not from Al Qaeda, but from us. The memo was addressed to the legal department of the Pentagon. It…
-
Opinion Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Belongs on the Ballot, Not Behind Bars
On April 8 municipal elections are scheduled to be held nationwide across Egypt, but they will hardly be a vote for the kind of democracy that America proclaims it supports here and elsewhere in the Arab world. Since a brief democratic opening in 2006, the Egyptian regime has become more hostile toward political opposition, showing…
-
Opinion Of Inflated Biographies and Deflated Charity
No one is perfect. Yet the high emotions of a political campaign are an inducement to idol worship. What follows is intended as an antidote to idolatry. I set John McCain to the side here. Many admire him; few idolize him. His strange plans for the economy, which would add some $400 billion to the…
Explore
Most Popular
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward House to consider bipartisan resolution condemning Hasan Piker, Candace Owens for antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Attack on nun in Jerusalem sparks outcry as tensions with Christians mount in Jerusalem
-
Film & TV A new documentary challenges stereotypes about Orthodox Jewish women — and their wigs
-
News Mamdani fails first political test in Manhattan race. Here’s why it matters to Jews