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
C’est l’Economie, Stupide
When Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative frontrunner in the French presidential elections, goes into the runoff with his socialist rival Ségolène Royal on May 6, he can count on strong support from the largest Jewish community in Western Europe. Many of France’s 600,000 Jews like Sarkozy’s outspoken (and somewhat un-French) support for Israel, but some are…
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Opinion Cease Citing Bible To Defend Bush’s Immigration Bill
It would be virtually impossible to unearth a single statement by a mainstream American Jewish leader in support of President Bush’s “Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act” that does not cite Leviticus 19. Citation of the passage is as ubiquitous as mainstream Jewish organizational support is monolithic in backing Bush’s bill and its provisions: exponentially increased immigration,…
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Opinion Confessions of a Non-intact Jewish Male
It used to be that the Jewish male’s early sacrifice of his foreskin was meant to prevent trichinosis. No, wait a minute: Preventing trichinosis was the purpose of avoiding pork. Circumcision had no parallel scientific rationalization. Its appeal (as distinguished from its status as commandment) was more aesthetic than scientific. Its aesthetic appeal was getting…
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Opinion May Day
Springtime, the season of renewal, is a time of expectation and remembrance, a time for looking forward to nature’s rebirth, while thinking back on the winter just endured. We fill the season with holidays of hope and memory, mimicking the earth in its drama of reawakening: Passover, with its memories of exodus and promise of…
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Opinion Mysteries of Moscow
On the morning of August 19, 1991, Americans woke to the televised sight of an empire in meltdown. Tanks were converging on the Kremlin, seeking to reclaim Russia for communism. One man, Boris Yeltsin, climbed atop a tank and stopped the coup, and entered history. Yeltsin, who died this week at 76, was a complicated…
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Letters April 27, 2007
Shoah Is Taught in U.K. The British government and its citizens are anything but in fear of the facts when it comes to teaching about the Holocaust and the State of Israel (“Fear of Facts,” April 20). Teaching the Holocaust is mandatory in all secondary schools in the United Kingdom. Education Secretary Alan Johnson has…
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Opinion Who’s Guilty For Mammoth China Trade Deficit?
The U.S. trade deficit with China is a mammoth $232 billion. America’s top trade envoy, Susan C. Schwab, has declared that she will take steps to bring down that deficit. To do so, she will have to go after the parties who are responsible for that deficit. If she really intends to go after the…
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Opinion Celebrating Israel at 59
As Israel approaches its 59th anniversary of independence, marked this coming Monday according to the traditional calendar, there’s a distinct mood of solemnity — bordering on gloom — that’s taken root among those who hold Jewish statehood most dear. There’s a fear afoot, rising almost monthly, that Israel faces threats of ever-growing deadliness, that the…
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Opinion The Dangers Are Great, But it Is Not 1938
There is a growing debate within the American Jewish community about whether the external threats to the Jewish community worldwide are similar to those just before the outbreak of World War II. The challenges now facing world Jewry, however, are not remotely similar — because of the creation of the State of Israel, because of…
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Opinion When Making Common Cause Has Ill Effects
We in Israel’s liberal community often look abroad for support for our organizations from likeminded nongovernmental agencies. The challenge is that many of these foreign groups are so critical of Israel that to turn to them for aid for a particular cause can wreak havoc and even serve Israel’s enemies. It is a bind in…
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Opinion Defend Your Faith When It Is Blasphemed
While the Jewish community is energetic about replying to perceived slurs against Jews or the State of Israel, we are remarkably passive when it comes to answering insults against our religion or our God. For example, best-selling atheist author Richard Dawkins mocks the God of the Hebrew Bible as “arguably the most unpleasant character in…
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Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
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Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
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Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
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Sports This year’s biggest World Cup upset came from its most Jew-ish team
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Fast Forward Years after a boycott fight, Ben & Jerry’s Israel debuts a flavor celebrating Israeli resilience
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Fast Forward Mamdani calls AIPAC ‘monsters’ in rally ahead of NY primaries
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Fast Forward Jewish groups push back against Trump’s Iran deal — but more quietly so far than in 2015
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News Who is Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli politician who could dethrone Netanyahu?