Opinion

• Opinion

  Immobilized by Moral Ambiguity

  Will it never end? The “it” refers to the cruelty, the meanness, the violence that so have characterized our times, and do still. While Iraq and Afghanistan continue to leech — blood, treasure, honor — it is other things I have in mind just now. The haunting question is the disturbing theme of a movie…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Coping With Illegal Immigration

  There are some 12 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. A bipartisan effort by the White House and key U.S. Senators has been working on a plan to cope with this circumstance. Their plan is simple. Instead of basing policy on reuniting families, the proposed new emphasis will be on providing a skilled and needed…

  By Gus Tyler May 18, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A New Breed of Trade Pacts

  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 Columbia, 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 17, 2007 | < 1 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

  An Incredible Conflict of Interest

  Michael E. Baroody has been a senior lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers. He has been named by President Bush to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NAM is delighted — as might be expected. What was not expected was a gift of $150,000 from the NAM to Baroody. Such a gift is…

  By Gus Tyler May 16, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Congress Digging Into Corporate Executive Pay

  The overblown compensation of corporate executives has been a matter of major concern to the American democracy as far back as “the Gilded Age” as America entered the 20th century. What could be done to contain this runaway self-indulgence of the mighty moguls? The corporations found a way. They hired experts in the field of…

  By Gus Tyler May 13, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Letters

  May 11, 2007

  Ex-Chief Rabbi’s Words Are Essentially Sorcery Rabbi David Ellenson opines about Orthodox rabbis in Israel who are saying that Reform Judaism is the cause of the Holocaust and who refuse to give legitimacy to the Reform rabbinate (“Obscene Orthodox Hatred Demands a Clear Denunciation,” May 4). This pains Ellenson — as it should — since…

  May 11, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Meltdown

  The very public meltdown of the World Jewish Congress is a tragedy of historic proportions, masquerading as low farce. An organization that once embodied the Jewish people’s epic struggle against the greatest of world evils, the WJC has now been reduced to a mockery, an ugly sideshow of nasty personal feuds, name-calling and bookkeeping scandals….

  May 11, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Will Scandal Loom Large in ’08 Elections?

  Last month, the FBI raided the offices of Rep. Rick Renzi’s family business as part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into a land-swap deal that could benefit one of the Arizona Republican’s friends. Just days before that raid, the FBI searched the home of Rep. John Doolittle, apparently looking for records of a company…

  By Stuart Rothenberg May 11, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Misusing Judaism in the Service of Roe

  ‘Oh, come on!” the e-mail read. “What’s a few dead children on the altar of my liberal slippery-slope paranoia?” Gruesome as the imagery was, I had to smile. The message was intended as a humorous ‘Touché” from an academic who had originally contacted me in anger. He was not only honest enough to concede his…

  May 11, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Winograd Commission’s Sins of Omission

  There are some important points missing in the Winograd commission’s discussion of the sources of last summer’s war against Hezbollah and the poor decision-making and warfighting capabilities Israel demonstrated. Failure to address three in particular — prisoners, Iran and 40 years of occupation — could help pave the way for new aggression against Israel. Last…

  By Yossi Alpher May 11, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Leveraged

  The classic warning, from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” was quite simple: “Neither a lender nor a borrower be.” Drawing on Exodus, it was meant to warn against the sin of usury. These days, alas, nobody is listening. At this moment, there are mighty financial moguls who are both borrower and lenders. Here’s the way they play the…

  By Gus Tyler May 11, 2007 | 2 min read