Opinion

• Opinion

  On Our Very Own Streets

  Yes, there’s Iraq and Iran and Hamas and Fatah. There’s gas prices and NSA and CIA and the stock market. There are typhoons and volcanic eruptions and soon, again, hurricanes. There’s Darfur and taxes, the morning-after pill and the essay by Mearsheimer and Walt, and that’s quite enough for the moment, thank you very much….

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Letters

  Letter May 26, 2006

  Pluralism at Seminary A May 12 letter writer asks who will serve as the Jewish Theological Seminary’s halachic authority now that Arnold Eisen has been selected as chancellor (“Conservative Seminary Lacks Rabbinic Leader”). The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly is, in fact, the halachic authority for the Conservative movement. Eisen…

  May 26, 2006 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Slaughterhouse Rules

  Many Jews nowadays find Shavuot, the holiday that begins next Thursday evening, June 1, to be among the hardest of Jewish holidays to embrace and take to heart. It lacks the pageantry and symbolism of Passover, the majesty of Yom Kippur, the intimacy of Hanukkah. It celebrates the Torah, Judaism’s sacred book of Law, but…

  May 26, 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Dear Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

  Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad President of the Islamic Republic of Iran May 26, 2006 Your Excellency, Our sincere apologies for the delayed response to your letter from earlier this month. We appreciate your effort at self-clarification and assume that it expresses a genuine desire to engage in dialogue. We write to you as fellow teachers who…

  May 26, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  A Not Quite Golden Jerusalem Still Shines

  An American friend of mine once asked me to list my favorite places in Jerusalem, not long after another American friend expressed his jealousy that I was in Jerusalem for Passover and he was not. In honor of Jerusalem Day this Friday, then, I want to clarify something for all prospective questioners: I, a kosher-keeping,…

  By Emily Hauser May 26, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Of Moabites and Mexicans

  With a touch of divine providence, the debate about illegal immigration is heating up just as Jews prepare for Shavuot. The two-day festival starting the evening of June 1, called Pentecost in English, marks the anniversary of the giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. The holiday’s most sweetly recalled feature, though, is the reading…

  By David Klinghoffer May 26, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Why Israeli Arabs Are a Jewish Issue

  The leadership of several major American Jewish organizations recently established a task force to improve relations between Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews and to address the disparities of opportunity and discrimination confronting Arabs in Israel. The task force comprises 50 Jewish organizations and aims to generate awareness among both North American Jews and Israelis, with…

  By Larry Garber and Ken Jacobson May 19, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Next Time Invite American Olim Instead of A.B. Yehoshua

  Earlier this month Israeli author A.B. Yehoshua created a tempest in a teapot by stating that one cannot live a fully Jewish life outside of Israel. As an American immigrant to Israel, I read with amusement and frustration about Yehoshua’s blast at the American Jewish Committee’s 100th anniversary conference and about the predictable indignation of…

  By David Chinitz May 19, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  British Academic Boycott Is Just Blinkered Bigotry

  Later this month Britain’s largest university and college lecturers union will vote on a motion recommending its 67,000 members boycott their Israeli counterparts and Israeli academic institutions. The move by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education is only the latest in a series of high-profile anti-Israel declarations and boycotts to emanate…

  By Peter Kearney May 19, 2006 | 4 min read
• Letters

  Letter May 19, 2006

  Survivors Will Fight On The Forward has sunk to new depths by attacking Holocaust survivors who have objected to being treated like third-class citizens (“At Long Last, Have You No Shame,” May 12). Perhaps out of the continued naiveté that our views mattered, several survivors met yet again with Judge Edward Korman and Special Master…

  May 19, 2006 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The NSA, Just a Phone Call Away

  There’s a small detail in the latest New York Times/CBS poll that President Bush apparently missed: “If George W. Bush,” the 1,241 respondents were asked, “supported a candidate for political office, would that make you more likely to vote for that candidate, less likely to vote for that candidate, or wouldn’t it affect how you…

  By Leonard Fein May 19, 2006 | 4 min read