Opinion

• Opinion

  An Unseen Factor in Iraq

  President Bush’s proposal to add tens of thousands of American troops in Iraq as a way to handle the calamitous chaos over there may well provoke a hidden counter movement that will strengthen the anti-American forces in Iraq. Throughout world history, there have been many occasions when a war dedicated to a noble purpose drew…

  By Gus Tyler

  < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Instruments of Their Own Discord

  This is not the column I meant to write this week, not with the world falling apart. But I am driven to write as I do by a passing paragraph in a New York Times review of a performance by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. I’ll get to that review and what it suggests about Israel…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 9, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 9, 2007

  Attack on AJCommittee Essay Was Over the Top A February 2 editorial on a new essay by Alvin Rosenfeld published by the American Jewish Committee was way over the top (“Infamy”). By employing such malicious language as “screed,” “sensationalist title” and “shocking tissue of slander,” by ascribing false motives for the essay’s publication, by decrying…

  Feb 9, 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

  Straight Talk on Energy

  A showdown is poised to erupt over energy and environment policy later this month in Washington, when a council of the nation’s most influential Jewish advocacy organizations convenes for its annual policy plenum. As our Jennifer Siegel reports on Page 1, divisions have emerged during the drafting of the council’s proposed energy resolution, pitting those…

  Feb 9, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Joys of Cedar Rapids

  An old Jewish folk tale tells of two travelers who meet on the road while fleeing Tsarist Russia. The first traveler asks, “Where are you going?” The second traveler responds, “To America. And where are you going?” “I am going to Madagascar,” replies the first traveler. “But Madagascar is so far away,” exclaims the second…

  By Mitchell Levin Feb 2, 2007 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Hiking the Minimum Wage Is Tzedakah at its Finest

  Congress seems set to raise the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour. The House approved a minimum-wage hike in late January, and the Senate appears poised to follow suit. The Jewish community has stepped up to advocate for the proposed $2.10 minimum-wage increase, the first in almost 10 years. The Jewish Funds for Justice…

  By Jill Jacobs Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Time for Our Community To Join the Iraq Debate

  At last, the debate over America’s disastrous situation in Iraq has begun in earnest. With the entire nation now engaged, it is long overdue — and then some — for the Jewish community to weigh in and determine what insights Jewish values and interests can offer. We must do so not only because our prophetic…

  By David Saperstein Feb 2, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Some Good News, Courtesy of the Young

  Go tell it on the mountain: There’s good news this otherwise dismal winter. As Israel’s foreign minister (and deputy prime minister), Tzipi Livni, said at the biannual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, pretty much every approach to peace between Israel and the Palestinians has been tried — and has failed. There was…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 2, 2007

  Columnist Got It Wrong, Limmud Conference Is A Boon to Jewish World Like David Klinghoffer, I had the opportunity to spend Martin Luther King Day weekend serving as a presenter at this year’s Limmud New York conference. But unlike your columnist, I found my initial experience with Limmud both enlightening and inspiring (“The Limitations of…

  Feb 2, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Battle for Gaza

  The terrorist attack that took three lives in the Israeli resort town of Eilat last Monday was an atrocity, and the organization that plotted and executed it, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, deserves every punishment the Israeli military can mete out. Bombing a suburban bakery is not an act of war. It is a crime against humanity….

  Feb 2, 2007 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Infamy

  It’s hard to fathom what could have possessed the leaders of the American Jewish Committee to publish the screed posted on their Web site this week, “’Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism,” by Alvin Rosenfeld of Indiana University. From its sensationalist title to its tired invocation of the Holocaust in the opening paragraph to…

  Feb 1, 2007 | < 1 min read