Opinion

• Opinion

  God Save This Honorable Court

  When the Supreme Court term opens October 3 with the familiar “God Save the United States and this Honorable Court,” the newest justice might in silence add, “from politicians, interest groups and media, all doing their best to ruin it.” The newest lawyer-turned-justice will be the survivor of a three-month political campaign costing interest groups…

  By Steven H. Goldberg

  5 min read
• Letters

  July 15, 2005

  Ignore Shoah Deniers I take issue with a July 8 article on the Institute for Historical Review (“Holocaust Revisionists Take On Mideast Policy”), not because it was poor reporting but because printing it displayed irresponsible journalism. A study of the psycho-social background of most Holocaust revisionists would, in all probability, find people who grew up…

  Jul 15, 2005 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  The Illusions of London

  Sixteen years ago, the Israeli folk-rocker Chava Alberstein went platinum with a searing song of despair about the unbearable uncertainty of life in Israel and the yearning to move someplace else where life could be simpler and safer. It was called “London.” “Goodbye, I’m going,” she sang. “Not that I have illusions about London. I’ll…

  Jul 15, 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Conquering

  Perhaps there was a time when the secular-religious divide — it is of Jews I write — made sense. In Eastern and Central Europe during the period of 1850 to 1930, it may have been the case that “secular” Jews were genuinely secular, as some few remain today. But here, now? For all that the…

  By Leonard Fein Jul 15, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Washington Must Plan Today For Democratic Iran of Tomorrow

  Two weeks ago, obscure hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad swept to victory in Iran’s run-off presidential election. In his first news conference as president-elect, he vowed to continue Iran’s nuclear program. “Today,” Ahmadinejad proclaimed, “we can say that nuclear technology is our right.” A nuclear Islamic Republic would undermine any prospect for Iranian reform, Middle East peace…

  By Michael Rubin Jul 8, 2005 | 6 min read
• Letters

  July 8, 2005

  Give Proper Credit on Civil Rights Movement A reply to the June 24 editorial on the conviction of Edgar Ray Killen is in order (“What They Did”). I write as a 50-year veteran of the civil rights struggle, having first joined the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and helped found its first…

  Jul 8, 2005 | 6 min read
• Opinion

  Welcoming the New Jews

  The question is so obvious, you have to wonder why nobody thought of asking it before: If only one-quarter to one-third of children in interfaith families are raised “in the Jewish faith,” as repeated surveys have shown, what becomes of the others? Do they become Christians? Do they melt into the broader population, with never…

  Jul 8, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Line of Decency

  There’s something tedious about the continual back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats accusing one another of abusing the memory of the Holocaust. First there was Senator Robert Byrd, the West Virginia Democrat, comparing Republican threats to cancel the filibuster in March with Nazi manipulation of German law during the 1930s. That prompted an angry retort from…

  Jul 8, 2005 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Whoso Sheddeth Man’s Blood, by Man Shall His Blood Be Shed

  One of the most gruesome scenes of the ongoing intifada happened right at its beginning. On October 12, 2000, Israeli military reservists Vadim Norzhich and Yosef Avrahami were beaten to death in a Ramallah police station. Their bodies were then thrown out of the window into the hands of a mob of Palestinians, who mutilated…

  By Uri Dromi Jul 8, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Word From the Pews

  The news that the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Ismar Schorsch, has announced his plans to retire has naturally created a lot of attention in the seminary community. There is far less commotion within the lay community — and that is as it should be. Jews don’t have a pope whose presence or absence…

  By Norman Levin Jul 8, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The Making of a Leader

  The Catholics got it right. They choose a pope in secret. They mourn the last pope, collect the cardinals in seclusion, and poof — black smoke, black smoke, white smoke. Then everyone goes back to work. But choosing a pope for a billion Catholics is one thing; choosing a chancellor for a million and a…

  By Jacob Neusner Jul 8, 2005 | 3 min read