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.
This week, Iraqis were set to go to the polls to elect a new parliament. At least two of the radical Islamist parties on the ballot, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and the Sadr Organization, maintain large and active militias. In Lebanon, elections a few months ago returned Hezbollah to parliament….
Oldest Bat Mitzvah Girl In History Was 101 While Esther Eisner sounds absolutely wonderful and should be lauded for becoming bat mitzvah at the age of 99 (“Oldest Bat Mitzvah Girl in History! [Or So We Think]”, December 2), my co-author, Paula Wolfson, and I interviewed and photographed an older woman on her bat mitzvah…
By speaking out loudly against the rise of economic inequality and the spread of poverty in Israel, newly elected Labor Party leader Amir Peretz has brought about a major shift in the country’s public agenda, away from the security matters that have dominated debate in Israel for so long. Some unspecified anti-poverty measures were supposedly…
Of late, ethnic Jewishness in America seems to have taken on some new flavors. Consider the bagel. Today, in addition to the traditional poppy seed and onion, one hears about heretical varieties like blueberry, rainbow and parmesan. And what’s more, these bagels now seem to be available everywhere around the nation, whereas even 25 years…
Kinky’s Candidacy Is Not Just About Politics A November 25 letter writer, having let a yucky word push his buttons, chides the Forward for implicitly approving Kinky Friedman’s campaign for governor of Texas (“Too Kinky for Texas”). As a native New Yorker happily residing in Providence, R.I., I could have only one reason for wishing…
When the bomb was thrown 22 years ago, many were aghast: Surely it would lead to an irreparable schism in the Jewish people. Even within the Reform Jewish movement, from which the explosive decision known as “patrilineal descent” had emanated, there were cautionary voices. The Reform rabbinate in Israel, as also Reform Hillel rabbis here…
Israel and its friends had good reason to celebrate this week, as the international community prepared to remove the legal barrier that keeps the Jewish state from joining the Red Cross. To the shame of the world humanitarian movement, Israel has been effectively barred from membership for decades by a technicality in the 1929 Geneva…
That massive chemical slick that was spilled into China’s Songhua River on November 13 completed its havoc-strewn journey through Harbin this week, allowing China’s fourth largest city to sound the all-clear and turn its water back on (though the lasting impact on groundwater and soil quality won’t be known for months or longer). Meanwhile, the…
As soon as European monitors took up their positions at the newly opened Rafah checkpoint last month, European Union diplomats started speaking of a new chapter in the difficult relationship between Israel and Europe. Not surprisingly, the honeymoon ended barely after it had begun. The leak last week of a controversial E.U. report, which heaped…
Recognize Chabad Way I have no doubt that Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov, my colleague in Munster, Ind., is most deserving of the rabbinic award he garnered from his local federation (“Chabad Makes Inroads at Parley,” November 18). I am less sure, however, of the Forward’s attempt to portray his wife’s position in her local Conservative Hebrew…
For about a millisecond, it seemed as if politics in Israel was experiencing a clarity bounce. The Labor Party, once the unchallenged engine of the system but lately suffering from mortis (yet without rigor), a flopping corpse suffering from terminal nostalgia, suddenly had chosen to face forward rather than back. Amir Peretz, its new leader,…
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