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.
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.
Heading into the home stretch of another bitterly fought national election, partisans on both sides aren’t pulling any punches. Democrats charge Republicans with incompetence, corruption and failed leadership. Republicans call Democrats ready to cut and run on Iraq, weak on security and, of course, tax-and-spend liberals. Name-calling and partisan attacks may turn the public off…
A provocative challenge to religious conservatives has been lodged by Time magazine blogger Andrew Sullivan in his new book, “The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back.” A very publicly gay, self-identified conservative and former New Republic editor, Sullivan thinks conservatism in general and the Republican Party in particular have been…
It can hardly be called a parade. Some people are frenzied, others are sluggish, the drums beat out of synch, it’s altogether a mess. But even so, some things become clear. For example, we can now state definitively that Jerusalem is neither Washington, D.C., nor Batavia, Ill. The way we know this? When the Torah…
Scholar No Amateur In a September 22 arts article, Gal Beckerman pays lip service to my book, “Roosevelt and the Holocaust: A Rooseveltian Examines the Policies and Remembers the Times,” casually mentioning it in a few sentences and essentially quoting an article from Publishers Weekly (“Reassessing FDR’s Legacy”). At least the reviewer at Publishers Weekly…
In a season of deep gloom and dark fears, no recent news has stricken more terror into more hearts than the reports this week that North Korea had conducted its first nuclear weapons test. The reports remain unconfirmed, to be sure, and the size of the tremor suggests that the bomb, if that’s what it…
Among the ruins of south Beirut, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah hailed a massive rally a few days ago. People jammed the streets to see him, crying out his name. In many Damascus shop windows, meanwhile, the rotund little sheik, often pictured hoisting high an AK-47 in homage to the Hezbollah logo, now enjoys pride of…
Europe is ringing these days with wake-up calls. Voices from the United States, Israel and certain European types are demanding a much tougher line on Islamic Jihadists, Middle Eastern terrorists and radical regimes like Iran. Europeans, these voices charge, is in denial about the deadly threat to Western values and civilization, or even worse, is…
What is the difference between saying that “so-and-so is a Jew” and that “so-and-so is Jewish?” An admittedly unscientific poll I took recently among 18 acquaintances reached a unanimous verdict; they always spoke of themselves as Jewish, not as Jews. Would “Jew” in the same context, they were then asked, be wrong or pejorative? Again…
A new poll reports that 71% of Iraqis want the United States out of Iraq within a year; half of them think that we should be out within six months. They want us, as President Bush might put it, to “cut and run.” But our president is nothing if not resolute. He means to stay…
What Does Allen Teach Us? The Forward editorializes, “We’ve seen a steady stream of public figures — Madeleine Albright, John Kerry, Tom Stoppard — confronted as adults with the hidden truth of their origins, and forced to absorb it in the glare of public attention. Most respond with thoughtfulness and grace. [George] Allen responded with…
When all is said and done, the most shocking aspect of the Mark Foley congressional sex scandal now unfolding in Washington is that it’s not terribly surprising. It’s just another misadventure by politicians from the ruling party whose sordid deeds are poles apart from their self-righteous, moralizing blather. It’s another example of America’s political leaders…
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