Opinion

• Opinion

  Rage, Islam and France

  It’s doubtless a mistake, as French government authorities insisted endlessly this week, to see the rioting by immigrant youth that has wracked France for the past two weeks as an expression of Muslim extremism, religious or otherwise. All the evidence indicates that the violence stems from feelings of alienation and frustration among immigrants and their…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  Four Days in November

  The followers of the late Meir Kahane may be called deluded and a lot of other things, and they would constitute a genuine threat to society if they weren’t, as a group, so ineffectual. But none of those is a capital offense. It’s more than a little disturbing that federal prison authorities allowed Earl Krugel,…

  Nov 11, 2005 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  The Way We War

  Three months ago this column was devoted to a comparison between the Israeli military and the American armed forces, focusing on the differing public attitudes associated with a conscription-based army as opposed to a volunteer force. In particular, the relative absence in the United States of organized mass protest concerning the war in Iraq, seemingly…

  By Yossi Alpher Nov 11, 2005 | 4 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

  Disabuse Community of Intolerance

  The resignation last week of Rabbi David Kaye from the educational program Panim, after revelations that he had solicited a 13-year-old boy online for sex, elicited the usual expressions of shock from the Jewish community. Of course, we all should be outraged when such immoral conduct is brought to light, but those who follow the…

  By Jay Michaelson Nov 11, 2005 | 5 min read
• Letters

  November 11, 2005

  The Cost of Free Tickets Opinion writer Diana Furchtgott-Roth says that churches have open-door policies on Christmas and Easter (“High Holy Days Ticket Prices Are Costing Community,” November 4). That is true. But she leaves out the part that churches have many more members to support their activities than synagogues. A good-sized synagogue will have…

  Nov 11, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Taking Tehran at its Word

  Shortly after the immediate and strong international reaction to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s comment that Israel should be “wiped off the map,” his foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, indicated that this position was nothing new: The Islamic regime had always viewed Israel that way, ever since the Khomeini revolution in 1979. Mottaki is correct. From the…

  By Abraham Foxman Nov 4, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Blaming Women Begets No Babies

  In the olden days, Jewish offspring were begat by their fathers, seemingly without intervention by women. The Bible is full of begotten children. For the most part, the Bible has only two reproductive narratives: long lines of uninterrupted male begetting and women suffering from infertility. Women seemed to have all sorts of trouble having babies,…

  By Shulamit Reinharz Nov 4, 2005 | 3 min read
• Letters

  November 4, 2005

  Magazine a Source of Connection for Youth Rapper 50 Shekel is an embarrassment to the Jewish community (“Racy Pics Make Rapper Blush,” October 28). Heeb magazine, on the other hand, is a blessing to the Jewish community. As a college student, I have seen many of my fellow students who claim to have a Jewish…

  Nov 4, 2005 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  It Takes a Community

  There’s been considerable coverage these last days of Rosa Parks, whose death a full half-century after the brief episode that rendered her an “icon” calls to mind a long-ago time. But there’s been little evocation of that time, the events and the circumstances that earned Parks iconic status. The year is 1955, the date is…

  By Leonard Fein Nov 4, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Protect the Poor, Hold the Center

  There is a compelling logic, it must be said, to the decision by United Jewish Communities, reported by Ori Nir on Page 3, not to mount a frontal challenge to the slashing budget cuts planned by the Republicans on Capitol Hill. As the national association of Jewish federated charities, UJC has a multibillion-dollar network of…

  Nov 4, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Cease-fire Turns Bloody It Takes a Community

  After nine months of relative quiet, Israeli-Palestinian relations have turned bloody again in the past week, with bombings, rocket attacks and assassinations threatening to end the fragile dialogue. There’s hope that cool heads may yet stave off chaos, but it will take strong nerves on both sides. The quiet took hold last February, when Hamas,…

  Nov 4, 2005 | 2 min read