Opinion

• Opinion

  Confessions of a Non-intact Jewish Male

  It used to be that the Jewish male’s early sacrifice of his foreskin was meant to prevent trichinosis. No, wait a minute: Preventing trichinosis was the purpose of avoiding pork. Circumcision had no parallel scientific rationalization. Its appeal (as distinguished from its status as commandment) was more aesthetic than scientific. Its aesthetic appeal was getting…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  May Day

  Springtime, the season of renewal, is a time of expectation and remembrance, a time for looking forward to nature’s rebirth, while thinking back on the winter just endured. We fill the season with holidays of hope and memory, mimicking the earth in its drama of reawakening: Passover, with its memories of exodus and promise of…

  Apr 27, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Mysteries of Moscow

  On the morning of August 19, 1991, Americans woke to the televised sight of an empire in meltdown. Tanks were converging on the Kremlin, seeking to reclaim Russia for communism. One man, Boris Yeltsin, climbed atop a tank and stopped the coup, and entered history. Yeltsin, who died this week at 76, was a complicated…

  Apr 27, 2007 | 2 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

• Letters

  April 27, 2007

  Shoah Is Taught in U.K. The British government and its citizens are anything but in fear of the facts when it comes to teaching about the Holocaust and the State of Israel (“Fear of Facts,” April 20). Teaching the Holocaust is mandatory in all secondary schools in the United Kingdom. Education Secretary Alan Johnson has…

  Apr 27, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Who’s Guilty For Mammoth China Trade Deficit?

  The U.S. trade deficit with China is a mammoth $232 billion. America’s top trade envoy, Susan C. Schwab, has declared that she will take steps to bring down that deficit. To do so, she will have to go after the parties who are responsible for that deficit. If she really intends to go after the…

  By Gus Tyler Apr 22, 2007 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Celebrating Israel at 59

  As Israel approaches its 59th anniversary of independence, marked this coming Monday according to the traditional calendar, there’s a distinct mood of solemnity — bordering on gloom — that’s taken root among those who hold Jewish statehood most dear. There’s a fear afoot, rising almost monthly, that Israel faces threats of ever-growing deadliness, that the…

  Apr 20, 2007 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Dangers Are Great, But it Is Not 1938

  There is a growing debate within the American Jewish community about whether the external threats to the Jewish community worldwide are similar to those just before the outbreak of World War II. The challenges now facing world Jewry, however, are not remotely similar — because of the creation of the State of Israel, because of…

  By Stuart Eizenstat Apr 20, 2007 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  When Making Common Cause Has Ill Effects

  We in Israel’s liberal community often look abroad for support for our organizations from likeminded nongovernmental agencies. The challenge is that many of these foreign groups are so critical of Israel that to turn to them for aid for a particular cause can wreak havoc and even serve Israel’s enemies. It is a bind in…

  By David Forman Apr 20, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Defend Your Faith When It Is Blasphemed

  While the Jewish community is energetic about replying to perceived slurs against Jews or the State of Israel, we are remarkably passive when it comes to answering insults against our religion or our God. For example, best-selling atheist author Richard Dawkins mocks the God of the Hebrew Bible as “arguably the most unpleasant character in…

  By David Klinghoffer Apr 20, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  On Serving Justice for Hair-raising Racism

  The current controversy swirling around shock-jock Don Imus’s crude description of the Rutgers University women’s basketball players as “nappy-headed hos” recalls an incident from another time when tightly curled hair — this time on the head of a Jewish music professor — played a dramatic, though ultimately minor, role in the struggle against segregation. This…

  By Lawrence Rubin Apr 20, 2007 | 3 min read
• Letters

  April 20, 2007

  New Envoy Will Leave Politics at Water’s Edge An April 13 (“Controversial Envoy to Belgium Vows More Campaign Giving”) article reports that Sam Fox “is vowing to continue donating to political candidates during his time in Brussels…. This decision… could prove contentious for Mr. Fox, given the tradition that ambassadors leave politics at the water’s…

  Apr 20, 2007 | 4 min read