Opinion

• 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…

  5 min read
• Opinion

  Spielberg’s List

  the debate as it unfolds on screen is an Israeli disputation, framed almost entirely in the words and deeds of Israelis: carrying out their deadly mission, questioning whether it will make things better, wondering whether it squares with their Jewish values, talking endlessly of home and family and the need to defend them. Arabs hardly…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 23, 2005 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  And in Other News, Darfur

  Suddenly, overload. Here, the president permits spying on American citizens. In the West Bank, Hamas scores big in local elections. Here, the prospect of a major shift in the Supreme Court. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls the Holocaust “a myth,” says that Israel is “a tumor” that “must be wiped off the map.” Here,…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 23, 2005 | 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

  Intelligent Decision

  This week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III in the so-called Intelligent Design case in Pennsylvania is a courageous, historic step toward replacing the hysteria of our culture wars with some good sense and reason. Reason, in fact, is at the heart of the judge’s decision. In ruling that the Dover school…

  Dec 23, 2005 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Joyous Holiday Noise

  Hanukkah seems almost anticlimactic this year. There’s been so much talk in recent weeks about the blurring of holiday messages and the proper place of religion in the public square that making a joyous holiday noise right now seems, well, a bit rude. Now isn’t the time to make trouble. In a way, though, that’s…

  Dec 23, 2005 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  Europe Must Act in Union To Influence Iran

  This week Great Britain, France and Germany resumed talks with Iran over its nuclear program. All eyes are now watching whether the European Union, when it comes to Middle Eastern affairs, can play and not just pay. For the first time in its short history, the E.U. has a real opportunity to play a crucial…

  By Antonio Ferrari Dec 23, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Outrageous Silence Of George W. Bush

  In calling the Holocaust “a myth,” as he did last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has drunk from the bloody cup shared by the malevolent enemies of equality and justice, the ultra right-wingers and haters who live in history’s shadows. Need it be said, again? The gas chambers, the bureaucratic system of murder, the efforts…

  By Teresa Heinz Kerry Dec 23, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  If You’re Really Offended, You Gotta Go Caroling

  It’s been a year since Bill O’Reilly publicly accused me of being part of the “War on Christmas.” When I called into his radio show to express concern about the effects on Jewish children of celebrating Christmas in the public schools, he infamously advised me that, “If you’re really offended, you gotta go to Israel.”…

  By Joel Friedman Dec 23, 2005 | 4 min read
• Letters

  December 23, 2005

  Article on Young Israel Unfair to Eliot Spitzer A December 9 article airs complaints from a disgruntled former employee of the state attorney general’s office (“Probe of Shul Group Had N.Y. Crimebuster’s Office in Tangles”). The article was misleading and unfair. Here are the facts about this matter: In 1999, the National Council of Young…

  Dec 23, 2005 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  A Cut Above?

  Nauseating stories of what goes on in meatpacking plants — from those in Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” in 1906 to Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” in 2002 — have caused us to pass up, if only temporarily, the occasional steak or hot dog. One year, I even forwent turkey on Thanksgiving. But while our stomachs…

  By Kathleen Peratis Dec 23, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Torturous Explanations

  There’s a sometime sense that Condoleezza Rice is, well, different from the others. She’s not as malignant as Dick Cheney nor as arrogant as Donald Rumsfeld, not as mendacious as Alberto Gonzales nor as sinister as Karl Rove. Her patron, the cheerleader-in-chief, gives her room to run and she runs hard; she is a respectable…

  By Leonard Fein Dec 16, 2005 | 4 min read