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.
Building on a new study of Jewish identity among the children of intermarriage, the Forward editorialized about the alleged failings of the organized Jewish community. In its July 8 editorial, “Welcoming the New Jews” — i.e. the offspring of mixed marriages — the Forward declared: “The Jewish community needs to come to terms with the…
All the wellsprings of the great deep burst And the casements of the heavens were opened. (Genesis 7:11) In New Orleans, the order was reversed: First it was the casements of the heavens that were opened, and only then did the wellsprings of the great deep burst. “A flood of Biblical proportions,” many people called…
Now that Israel has completed its evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank, many uncertainties that plagued us for the past several months have been resolved. The Israeli government showed that it could successfully implement its disengagement policy in the face of tumultuous public protests. And it did so with remarkable compassion…
We’ve come a long way from “The Scarlet Letter.” What’s left of the gravity that once surrounded the Seventh Commandment, prohibiting adultery, could be observed in the news sensation of the past couple of weeks. No, I don’t mean the pullout from Gaza. I mean Brad Pitt’s pullout from his marriage to Jennifer Aniston, coinciding…
The battle over Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is coming to a head, and though the deck is stacked against them, his liberal critics seem ready for a nasty fight to the finish. As Ori Nir reports on Page 1, one liberal advocacy group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, issued a 19-page…
Any hope that the worst of Hurricane Katrina had passed was destroyed Tuesday, as the levees protecting New Orleans from flooding gave way. It is hard to imagine how the Big Easy and the city’s 500,000 residents ever will recover. Still, as the ancient Rabbi Tarfon famously declared, “You are not required to complete the…
‘Jews don’t evacuate Jews” was the slogan on the orange bumper stickers affixed to cars, waved about on banners that crowded the landscape, and shouted by protesters as we drove back into Jerusalem on August 18, after a long day in the Gaza Strip. I asked my Palestinian driver, a longtime Jerusalem resident, to tell…
Are Mainline Churches With Us or Against Us? David Elcott correctly exposes the divide between anti-Israel Protestant radicals and the majority of mainline Christians, who are committed to fairness and realism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (“Divest Anti-Israel Prejudice From Churches” August 26). We should follow this point to its logical conclusion. Protestant leaders need to…
Next week many Americans will be paying careful attention to the answers given by Judge John Roberts during his Senate confirmation hearings. This is to be expected, given the importance of the Supreme Court in the contemporary political constellation. Jews are no exception. The list of subjects of interest to the Jewish community on the…
Right now there are men and women sitting in Humvees in Iraq or flying missions over the mountains of Afghanistan. In matters of religion and conscience they represent great diversity, but they are bound together in their professional duty by a commitment to Constitution and country. As American servicemen and women they are willing to…
President Bush was right on the money when he lauded Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for “having made a very tough decision” to carry out the evacuation of settlements from Gaza and the northern West Bank, a bold choice of demography (i.e., a Jewish state) over geography (i.e., the Land of Greater Israel). Indeed, Sharon’s…
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