Opinion

• Letters

  January 13, 2006

  Russian Films Capture Complexity of Novels Arts and culture writer Thane Rosenbaum claims that the “dark psychological complexity is not particularly well suited to cinema, which is why Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels have not been successfully adapted” (“Yeah, but the Book Is Better,” December 23). I am originally from Russia, and I know of at least…

  5 min read
• Opinion

  Go to Gush Etzion

  Facts and figments. As ever, Jerusalem is a riot of figments. Camp David, Taba, Geneva, back to Clinton, the road map, on and on, and trying to grab hold as each buzzes past is like trying to catch a mosquito: You’re sure you have it but when you open your hand there’s nothing there, so…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 13, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Sharon’s Legacy

  The stroke that felled Ariel Sharon last week ended one of the most compelling dramas now unfolding on the world stage, right in the middle of the second act. In disengaging from Gaza, Sharon had just orchestrated a diplomatic and military maneuver of incomparable complexity and daring, whose effect was to reshuffle the parameters of…

  Jan 13, 2006 | 3 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

  Deli Down

  The closing of the Second Avenue Deli, the landmark Lower East Side kosher eatery, has all the classic elements of a modern-day Jewish cultural crisis: The struggle for historical memory. The quest for generational continuity. The never-ending battle for control of the land on which we stand. And, of course, the search for a truly…

  Jan 13, 2006 | 2 min read
• Letters

  December 30, 2005

  A Kvetching Culture Is Anchored in Reality I suspect that Michael Wex’s book “Born To Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods” hits too close to home for Philologos (“Et tu, Wex?” December 23). The columnist confuses individual temperament and social phenomena. Wex was talking about what Emile Durkheim called a “social…

  Dec 30, 2005 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Patriots and Intruders

  In the furious debate over the USA Patriot Act, frequent reference is made to the First Amendment of the Constitution. The president’s critics maintain that the Patriot Act’s intrusive practices, including wiretapping, monitoring library use and more, amount to limitations on our freedom of speech. Armed with these new tools, Uncle Sam becomes an Orwellian…

  By Gus Tyler Dec 30, 2005 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Year Of the Camel

  As this year runs quite unlamentably out, it is well to fill in some of its blanks — bits and pieces you may have missed. Once every 10 years or so, there takes place something called a White House Conference on Aging. The fifth such was from December 11 to December 14 of this year….

  By Leonard Fein Dec 30, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Dover, Darwin and The Assault on Science

  There was more at stake than legal or constitutional quibbles over church-state separation in that federal court ruling handed down last week in Pennsylvania, barring the pseudo-science known as Intelligent Design from public-school biology classes. Read carefully, the judge’s decision was a ringing defense of science itself, and of the empirical method of reasoning that…

  Dec 30, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Promote National Pride in Germany, but Be Faithful to History

  Years ago, I was told the joke about a boy who murders his parents and then begs the court for mercy on the basis of being an orphan. Today, a new version is circulating across Germany. It tells of a father who organizes a complex and comprehensive plan to murder all his children. Some of…

  By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield Dec 30, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  When Reel Life Intrudes on the Mideast Conflict

  People are more than edgy these days. Our careless, civilian ways are endangered — some say by Islamist terrorists, others by Republicans, or by Leftists, or madmen on strike. People are hunkering down; today they talk only to those with whom they already agree. Among Jews, however, nervousness seems to have been elevated to a…

  By Ariel Chesler and Phyllis Chesler Dec 30, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Our Role in Promoting Holocaust Denial

  Last month, British historian David Irving was arrested in Austria for the crime of denying the Holocaust. When he goes on trial this February, facing up to a decade in prison, he could become a martyr for antisemitic kooks — kooks like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A couple of weeks ago, Ahmadinejad commented that, in…

  By David Klinghoffer Dec 30, 2005 | 4 min read