Opinion

• Letters

  December 1, 2006

  Lego Project Builds Understanding of Shoah As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I was appalled by the headline to a November 17 article on the Warsaw Ghetto program using Lego building blocks (“Lego My Ghetto: Sparks Fly Again as Kids Craft Shoah Model”). Web log editor Dan Sieradski, who apparently lacks any direct knowledge of…

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Waiting for the Democrats

  Many of the movers and shakers who make it their business to speak truth to power in the name of the Jewish community are jittery these days. They’ve been watching the Democrats in Washington get ready to take over the reins of Congress, and trying to figure out what it will mean for the interests…

  Dec 1, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Jewishness of Joseph Lieberman

  Joseph Lieberman may have held on to his Senate seat, but it’s safe to say that there were plenty of Jews who weren’t celebrating with him on election night. Indeed, Lieberman — one of the greatest political path-breakers in American Jewish history — has long been a controversial figure among his fellow Jews. This has…

  By Daniel Treiman Nov 24, 2006 | 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

  The Socialism of Bernie Sanders

  At 2 in the morning on a November night in 1914, on the square that abutted the Forward building in the middle of the Lower East Side, a crowd that had been gathered there all evening heard an announcement it had awaited for hours: Tammany had conceded. New York’s 9th Congressional District had a new…

  By Harold Meyerson Nov 24, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Jerusalem’s Pride Divide

  The passionate controversy over the gay pride parade planned for Jerusalem earlier this month brought to a head the worst aspects of life in Israel. The storm can be viewed as a microcosm of the decadent trends that have steadily infiltrated our society, dramatically highlighting the ability of minority groups to polarize and hijack the…

  By Isi Leibler Nov 24, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Leave a Seat Empty at the Thanksgiving Table

  In the late winter of 1951, while serving as vice president of the student body at Forest Park High School, in Baltimore, I met with our school’s principal, a man named Wendell Dunn, to talk about what we might do to mark the then-approaching “Brotherhood Week.” Baltimore in those days was a segregated city, segregated…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 24, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Much Lies Beyond the Grasp of Arrogant Atheism

  I’m no longer surprised by the cluelessness of Jewish educational institutions. Thus a friend studying at a certain Orthodox-affiliated college emailed me this week, asking for my definition of conservatism. He explained that he is taking a class in advanced psychology, the specific topic being the “authoritarian personality.” That phrase encapsulates a highfalutin’ slur on…

  By David Klinghoffer Nov 24, 2006 | 3 min read
• Letters

  November 24, 2006

  Levi’s World Was Complex An October 27 Shmooze item refers to Primo Levi’s “death by suicide” (“Primo Voted Number One”). The cause of Levi’s death was a fall into a deep stairwell. Whether that fall was intentional or, as is more likely, accidental, has never (and cannot) be determined. Levi’s work explores the dreadful humanness…

  Nov 24, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Just Say Yes

  Ehud Olmert became Israel’s prime minister by accident last winter, after his boss, Ariel Sharon, succumbed to a stroke. Though elected to the post in his own right two months later, Olmert did not enter office with a great reserve of public faith behind him. He was an accidental premier and was viewed that way….

  Nov 24, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Judging Friedman

  Milton Friedman, the economist who died last week at age 94, was an intellectual giant of the 20th century, one of a tiny group of social theorists whose ideas could be said to define an era. Champion of free-market economics, fierce opponent of government intervention, he was responsible, more than any other individual, for the…

  Nov 24, 2006 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Dying Debate Over Racial Justice

  On November 7 Michigan voters chose to end affirmative action preferences based on race or gender in education, government jobs and government contracting. But something else may have ended as well: the national debate on affirmative action. This does not mean that affirmative action’s job is done. It does not mean that racial minorities are…

  By John D. Skrentny Nov 17, 2006 | 4 min read