In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
Obscene Orthodox Hatred Demands a Clear Denunciation
Several weeks ago, the former Israeli chief Sephardic rabbi, Mordecai Eliyahu, charged that the Holocaust was divine punishment meted out against our people on account of the sin of Reform Judaism. Such an accusation is infuriating, and unleashes unnecessary hatred and incitement among Jews. But there is unfortunately nothing particularly novel about this obscenity. I…
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Opinion Increasing Affiliation Requires More Than Sabbath Yoga
A spate of data released within the past year indicates that Jews in their 20s and 30s are not affiliating with American Jewish institutions or otherwise connecting with organized Jewry. This has caused many lay and professional leaders of synagogues, communal organizations and philanthropies to craft a new set of strategies designed to engage these…
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Opinion Can We Still Say That a Fetus Does Not Suffer?
The Supreme Court’s recent decision on partial-birth abortion is sickening. Its four-paragraph description of an abortion doctor at work, only snippets of which have been quoted in the mainstream press, sounds like something out of Jeffrey Dahmer’s basement. Such as: “The doctor grips the fetal part with the forceps and pulls it back through the…
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Opinion The Global Crash
The forces are gathering for the first truly globalized depression. True, the Great Depression of the 1930s was not confined to the United States. But there were large chunks of the world — typically underdeveloped agricultural societies — that escaped the full brunt. The coming crisis is not likely to spare any nation. It will…
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Opinion If There’s Life Out There, Do They Eat Pastrami?
All right, folks; this could be very serious. As you have likely read, astronomers have now discovered a planet some 120 trillion miles from Earth, off in another galaxy, which seems — from a distance, as it were — capable of supporting life. (The astronomers tell us that 120 trillion miles isn’t all that far…
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Opinion No Crystals Needed
What is meditation, and why is it continuing to appear in more and more synagogues long after the Kabbalah craze and other spiritual fads have faded? As someone who has practiced meditation for many years and has now begun to teach it in Jewish settings, I’ve found it useful to start with what meditation isn’t….
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Opinion A Florida Psychologist Asks: Kabbalah With Your Sushi?
**Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ** – A new beachfront restaurant in this South Florida city is billing itself as the country’s first kabbalistic restaurant. Café Emunah is relatively new to the competitive kosher dining scene in the area, yet it has already distinguished itself with its holistic approach to kosher food — combining organic chic with…
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Opinion Meet the New Rabbis — Class of 2007
Michal Woll, a candidate for ordination at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, brings to the rabbinate years of experience dealing with medical care and quality-of-life issues. Woll, 43, began her career in the sciences, earning undergraduate degrees in chemical and biomedical engineering before completing a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of…
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Opinion D.C.-Based Minyan Mixes Shabbat With Activism
Washington – Tikkun Leil Shabbat, a participatory prayer group, or havurah, may soon have to find a bigger space. The havurah’s average attendance has increased to upward of 150 from 30 since its founding barely two years ago. Even after halting their advertising on Jewish e-mail lists in Washington, every third Friday night dozens upon…
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Opinion At Retreat, Y.U. Rabbis Talk God
In 2005, Yeshiva University established a Center for the Jewish Future, a think tank and outreach organization seen by some as a more flexible counterweight to the university’s affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary. This year, the center launched a new program that offers a glimpse into how the new unit is attempting to establish…
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Letters May 4, 2007
View Greece’s Wartime History in Context I am perplexed by opinion writer Andrew Apostolou’s general assessment of Greece’s conscience (“Greece Must Acknowledge Its Complicity in the Shoah,” March 23). Though most of the historic data presented in the opinion article are true and correct, I believe it is superficial to isolate a part of history…
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Fast Forward Longtime pro-Israel Democrat Steny Hoyer announces retirement from Congress
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Politics Cameron Kasky embodies rising Gen Z Jewish criticism of Israel. Can it get him to Congress?
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Opinion The ICE shooting in Minneapolis shattered my Holocaust survivor father’s American dream
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Yiddish אוידיאָ: וואָס באַטײַט דער סידני־אַטאַק פֿאַר די ייִדן אין אויסטראַליע?AUDIO: What does the Sydney attack mean for Jews in Australia?
אַלעקס דאַפֿנער, פֿון מעלבורן, אַנאַליזירט די באַדינגונגען וואָס האָבן אפֿשר דערפֿירט צו דעם אומגליק.
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