In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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….
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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