Opinion

• Opinion

  The Weak Yuan

  China is now being charged with depressing the value of the yuan, its primary currency. With a weak currency, Chinese consumers would find it hard to buy goods made in other countries, and they would find it easy to sell their goods in other lands. Hence, the weak yuan would help promote a favorable balance…

  By Gus Tyler

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Two Cheers for Trade

  The Republican White House and the Democratic Congress have reached an agreement on a new kind of trade pact. It applies to pending agreements with Colombia, Peru, Panama and South Korea. What is distinctive about these trade agreements is that they go beyond the simple exchange of goods; they oblige the parties to observe certain…

  By Gus Tyler May 25, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  A City United in Name Only

  Here is a quiz: On May 14, 2007, the ambassadors of seven nations — Georgia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Congo, Cameroon, Honduras and Cote d’Ivoire — gathered in Jerusalem on an auspicious occasion. On November 6, 1995, the following, among others, gathered in Jerusalem for a very different occasion: the president of the United States, his wife…

  By Leonard Fein May 25, 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’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

  Solving The Chinese Puzzle

  Last year, the United States ran a trade deficit of $232 billion with China. The Congress of the United States is enraged and wants China to open up its market to products “made in America.” The first question to be asked is just how it has happened that China has such a huge trade surplus…

  By Gus Tyler May 24, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  What’s In A Name?

  The city of Boston was one of the pivotal players in early American history. A popular rhyme declared: “Here’s to the city of Boston, the land of the bean and the cod, where the Lowells speak only with Cabots and the Cabots speak only with God.” One of Boston’s boasts is Filene’s, a world famous…

  By Gus Tyler May 20, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  When We Let John Hagee Speak for Us

  The American Jewish community must decide: Does it want to connect young Jews to Israel, or does it intend to drive them away? By supporting Birthright Israel, the community was wise enough to see that even our most disengaged young people have a yearning for connection to the Jewish state. Birthright is one of our…

  By Eric Yoffie May 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Seven Weeks

  The holiday of Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, traditionally commemorates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, seven weeks after the Jews left Egypt. In traditional rabbinic teaching, it brings the Passover season to a climax. The Exodus, celebrated on Passover, marks the liberation of the Jews from bondage into freedom, so the rabbis…

  May 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  May 18, 2007

  Comprehensive Reform Needed on Immigration Poll after poll after poll released since November 2006 shows majority support for immigration solutions that include enhanced border security, workplace and employer enforcement, earned legalization for undocumented immigrants with a path to citizenship, and expanded visas for future immigrant workers and families (“Cease Citing Bible To Defend Bush’s Immigration…

  May 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Integration Is Israeli Arabs’ Only Path To Equality

  The modern history of the Middle East is filled with ideological intellectuals who aimed for great political ideas but instead produced some of the world’s cruelest dictatorships and militaristic regimes — the Baathists in Iraq, the Islamists in Iran and the pan-Arab socialists in Libya, among others. These intellectuals, detached from the reality and experience…

  By Reda Mansour May 18, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Pope Rethinks the Afterlife

  For most of us, I suppose, the word “limbo” calls to mind a certain dance craze associated with Chubby Checker, whose major hit, “(C’mon, Baby, Let’s Do) The Twist,” was probably covered by every bar mitzvah band that ventured beyond “The Hokey Pokey” and “Hava Nagila” between 1961 and 1965. Limbo remained in that private…

  By Martin Jaffee May 18, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Refocus Federations’ Agenda on Renaissance and Renewal

  There is no question that United Jewish Communities has the ability to be nimble. The national body of local Jewish federations raised hundreds of millions of dollars in aid when war broke out last summer between Israel and Hezbollah, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina it ably directed communal resources to meet crucial needs….

  By David Eliezrie May 18, 2007 | 3 min read