Opinion

• Opinion

  Two Cheers for Arnold

  To no one’s surprise, the Democratic takeover of Congress has been accompanied by a sudden renewal of the national debate over health care. Less predictably, the debate was kicked off this week by a Republican, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. Like most governors, Republican or Democratic, Schwarzenegger is frustrated by the economic and human costs…

  3 min read
• Opinion

  All the Good Guys Are Dead, Mr. President

  “It’s almost a war without a home front,” journalist Bob Woodward told Time magazine just before Christmas. “Taxes are down, everyone’s buying…. There is a sense almost that we’re not at war. I can’t explain that phenomenon.” I can’t explain it, either. But I think that most of us who’ve never been asked to do…

  By Jim Sleeper Jan 5, 2007 | 7 min read
• Opinion

  My 75 Years at the Forward, From East Broadway to the Blogosphere

  This issue is the first of 2007, the Forward’s 110th anniversary year. It is a personal landmark for me, too: the 75th anniversary of my own association with the Forward. Over the years, I’ve gone from a young editorial assistant to a senior commentator. I’ve worked in print, broadcast and now on the Internet, riding…

  By Gus Tyler Jan 5, 2007 | 5 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

  The ‘Boy Crisis’ That Cried Wolf

  Ever galvanized by a good emergency, the American Jewish community has been mobilizing in response to a recent spate of articles depicting a looming “boy crisis.” The Union for Reform Judaism inaugurated a “Young Men’s Project” to “address the dearth of boys and young men in our congregations,” and plans to hold a pre-biennial symposium…

  By Rona Shapiro Jan 5, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Let Irving and His Ilk Deny The Holocaust

  Last February, when an Austrian judge sentenced British revisionist historian David Irving to three years in prison for denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers back in 1989, a wide range of commentators criticized the verdict and Austria’s prohibition statute on which it was based. Even American historian Deborah Lipstadt, who had won a high-profile…

  By Eric Frey Jan 5, 2007 | 3 min read
• Letters

  January 5, 2007

  Scholar Not Only One To Doubt Population Figure A December 22 article and a related editorial cast Israeli statistician Sergio DellaPergola as standing alone against a consensus of American experts when it comes to the size of the American Jewish population (“New Studies Put U.S. Jewry Over 6 Million Mark”; “Stop Worrying: Details Follow”). However,…

  Jan 5, 2007 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Looking Back, and Forward

  In a world that seems ever more dark and gloomy with each passing year, the year that just ended, 2006, managed to leap up a notch or two and leave us gloomier and more troubled, by several orders of magnitude, than most of us had thought imaginable. It was a year that opened, as soberingly…

  Jan 5, 2007 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Assad’s Olive Branch Can Bear No Fruit

  According to an article in Time magazine this month, I am the central figure in some cockamamie plot to overthrow the Syrian government. The plan, apparently, is to undermine Bashar al-Assad’s regime through the ballot box, starting with the parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2007. But as every Syrian knows, these elections tend to be…

  By Ammar Abdulhamid Dec 29, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Building a Community Starts at Birth

  Jewish life begins at birth, not when pre-teen children start preparations for their bar or bat mitzvah. Yet families with young children are largely uninvolved in Jewish life. If Jewish communities were to conduct outreach to parents when they have a baby or adopt, such efforts might lead to earlier involvement and long-term engagement. The…

  By Mark Rosen Dec 29, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Get Rich And Prosper

  The old antisemitic stereotype of Jews obsessing about money has been re-energized of late in several pop-culture venues. But is this image — dare I voice a heresy — really all that antisemitic? When celebrity book editor Judith Regan was fired by her boss, Rupert Murdoch, the story went around that it was because Regan…

  By David Klinghoffer Dec 29, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  An Annus Very Horribilis

  Time magazine notwithstanding, I don’t believe I am “Man of the Year.” That is not an instance of false modesty, nor, for that matter, of true modesty. Just so we understand each other, I don’t believe you are “Person of the Year” either. That is just not how it works. I mean, what’s the use…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 29, 2006 | 4 min read