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
The Winograd Commission’s Sins of Omission
There are some important points missing in the Winograd commission’s discussion of the sources of last summer’s war against Hezbollah and the poor decision-making and warfighting capabilities Israel demonstrated. Failure to address three in particular — prisoners, Iran and 40 years of occupation — could help pave the way for new aggression against Israel. Last…
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Opinion Leveraged
The classic warning, from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” was quite simple: “Neither a lender nor a borrower be.” Drawing on Exodus, it was meant to warn against the sin of usury. These days, alas, nobody is listening. At this moment, there are mighty financial moguls who are both borrower and lenders. Here’s the way they play the…
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Opinion Define Zionism as the Jewish Right of Return
From November 1975 to December 1991, Zionism was “officially” a form of racism and racial discrimination. So the United Nations famously proclaimed by a vote of 67- 35 (with 32 abstentions), and so it was for 16 years, until, by a vote of 111-25 (with 13 abstentions), the “Zionism is racism” resolution was simply rescinded….
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Opinion They Are Both Borrowers and Lenders
The classic warning was that “Thou shalt neither a lender nor a borrower be.” At this moment, there are mighty financial moguls who are both borrower and lenders. Here’s the way they play the game: They are known as “leveraged” take-over artists. The term “leveraged” means that they borrowed the money for their operation. With…
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Opinion Youngstown: An American Tragedy
The story of Youngstown, Ohio, is the sad tale of a tragedy “made in America.” Youngstown was once one of the greatest producers of steel in the world. Today, it is a ghost town. It can no longer depend on its once thriving steel mills to provide employment for its people. In search of a…
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Opinion Ehud Olmert Is Not Solely To Blame
Nine months after the end of Israel’s war in Lebanon comes the Winograd Commission’s interim report — and it is being used to put a gun to the head of the wrong person. The Winograd report ignores the plain fact that the war ended in a victory of sorts; how else to explain why the…
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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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