Opinion

• Opinion

  This Passover, Peas on Earth

  Until last Wednesday, I had no idea what “legumes” meant. Oh, I knew that legumes were an edible of some sort and not a French rock band (“Les Gumes” or some such). But coming on the word as I did only once a year, during the run-up to Passover, I knew legumes only as a…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• Opinion

  The Risks of War

  At least on the face of things, the latest news emerging from Tehran must bring some significant shift in the tone and calculus of American strategic thinking on the Middle East. Former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani announced Tuesday that Iran has succeeded in producing a limited amount of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. True, it…

  Apr 14, 2006 | 4 min read
• Letters

  Letter April 14, 2006

  Word to Music Critics: Just Let Matisyahu Sing The racially focused critiques of Chabad-Lubavitch reggae star Matisyahu lack merit (“Trials of a Hasidic Rapper,” March 24). Matisyahu and his band are attacked for being white. To paraphrase the late Miles Davis, it doesn’t matter if this cat is black, white or polka dot with green…

  Apr 14, 2006 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman American Jews can’t agree about anything — except Iran

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry Trump’s new Gaza plan marks a radical break from Israeli policy — can it succeed?

  

• Emily Tamkin Is Mamdani bad or good for Jews? Here’s how to tell

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Whoa Unto Us

  Whoa unto us. That’s “whoa,” not woe. We’re in a kind of sucking swamp just now. Think about Hamas, and experience dismay. Think about Washington and Baghdad and experience despair. Think about Iran’s announcement that it now has ballistic missiles with multiple warheads that can be independently targeted, and experience, well, righteous fear. And by…

  By Leonard Fein Apr 7, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Passion of the Pension

  The second biggest surprise of Israel’s election last week — after the evaporation of the Greater Israel ideology — was the meteoric appearance of the Pensioners Party. As most of the world knows by now, the party had surfaced as a fringe protest group, all but invisible in voter surveys, but it somehow caught an…

  Apr 7, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Exodus

  Wednesday evening, April 12, Jews all around the world will sit down together to celebrate the Seder, the annual re-enactment of their ancestors’ Exodus from Egypt. If the past is any guide, millions upon millions will gather around the table with friends and family to tell stories, sing songs, struggle with bits of Hebrew text…

  Apr 7, 2006 | < 1 min read
• Opinion

  When Those Who Immigrate Don’t Assimilate

  The current political row on Capitol Hill and in California about immigration policy notwithstanding, Europeans look with admiration and envy at American society’s ability to absorb people from all over the world. And though they might be loath to concede the point to Americans, a fair number of Europeans would admit that Europe’s poor record…

  By Eric Frey Apr 7, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Schoolteacher and the Government’s Watch List

  ere’s a little story about a close friend of 32 years. A 61-year-old grandmother with an Ivy League masters degree, she teaches fifth grade at a fancy private school in Englewood, N.J. She also does after-school tutoring and has been caught, on more than one occasion, venturing out in a snowstorm to help yet another…

  By Mickey Pearlman Apr 7, 2006 | 3 min read
• Letters

  Letter April 7, 2006

  Editorial Romanticizes U.S. Support for Israel In a March 24 editorial on John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s controversial polemic on the “Israel lobby” (“In Dark Times, Blame the Jews”), the Forward states that “Israel has had the support of successive American administrations in large part because it enjoys the sympathy of much of the American…

  Apr 7, 2006 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  The Jackson-Robertson Test

  Imagine: 4,500 Jews in convention assembled, listening rapturously to a speech by Vice President Dick Cheney. Shooter Cheney — his man Lewis Libby was “Scooter,” so why not? — spoke for 35 minutes and was interrupted 48 times by the delegates’ applause. That’s once every 43.7 seconds. And the 4,500 were at the American Israel…

  By Leonard Fein Mar 31, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Building Identity, One Roof at a Time

  To me, a well-constructed roof looks a lot like Jewish identity (“Teach Model Citizenship by Example,” March 10). Right now, 700 Jewish college students are in New Orleans and i n Biloxi, Miss., cleaning up the damage wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita nearly seven months ago. The chugging of the air compressor, punctuated by…

  By Michelle Lackie Mar 24, 2006 | 3 min read