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.
Opinion
-
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…
-
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,…
-
Opinion From Baghdad to Beirut, Arab Leaders Being Held To Account
Long home to farfetched conspiracy theories and a political culture of victimization, the Arab world is now being swept by a new emphasis on accountability. While commentators and pundits debate the merits, drawbacks and sincerity of the Bush administration’s drive for democracy, events across the Middle East suggest that the relationship between rulers and the…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion In Our Time
Whatever else might be said about it, the Roman Catholic Church must be deemed one of the wonders of human civilization. In continuous operation for two millennia, it remains among the world’s most powerful institutions, claiming 1 billion followers, one-sixth of all humanity, in a tightly organized community of belief and influence that reaches into…
-
Opinion Sukkah in the Storm
The sukkah, the fragile hut that gives the Sukkot holiday its name, could be the most ambivalent symbol in all of Jewish tradition. Custom dictates that we spend a week each fall dwelling — or at least taking meals — in a roofless shack, open to the heavens. It is, we are taught, a time…
-
Opinion Serving Justice By Not Publicly Serving Justices
There are no daily front-page stories. There are no slick public relations campaigns touting or trashing potential candidates. And there are no public hearings on nominees’ fitness to serve. In Israel, the selection process for new Supreme Court justices unfolds behind closed doors, and information made public — even about the identity of the candidates…
-
Letters October 28, 2005
Fund Ethiopian Efforts After years of stonewalling and foot-dragging by the government of Israel and the Jewish Agency, it will take deeds, not more words, in order for success and not “the sad reality” to be the hallmark of Ethiopian Jewish aliyah (“Poverty and Crime Rates Reveal Israel’s Failure To Absorb Ethiopian Immigrants,” October 21)….
-
Opinion Facing the Unresolved Issue in Interfaith Dialogue
Built in the year 81 C.E., the Arch of Titus stands dramatically in the Roman Forum, commemorating Titus’s military triumph over the Jews and the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem 11 years earlier. A bas-relief on the inside of the arch depicting Roman soldiers carrying the spoils of victory highlights the massive menorah. Contemplating…
-
Opinion In the Wake of A Sinking Ship
In November 2004, just after the reelection of President Bush, I wrote that the Republicans are “off to such a furious start that their excess may presage their early demise. Simply stated, the likelihood is that the Republicans will over-reach. The early indications are that they have not merely been buoyed by their victories, but…
-
Letters October 21, 2005
Don’t Turn Communal Back on Jewish Felons I am very disappointed that no one in the Jewish community seems willing to help Barry Gibbs (“Out of Jail, Mob Fall Guy Pines for a Shul and Some Shellfish,” October 7). After all, we help Israel, Holocaust victims, Jewish arts and culture, Jewish education, hurricane and tsunami…
-
Opinion Robert Aumann, Teacher Laureate
The two winners of the 2005 Nobel prize in economics were announced the other day: Thomas Schelling, now at the University of Maryland, (before that, for many years, at Harvard University), and Robert Aumann of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Paul Samuelson aside, the winners of the Nobel in economics usually are not well known…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion A quiet diplomatic shift in the Middle East, with monumental consequences for Israel
- 2
Fast Forward Mississippi fire suspect called the temple a ‘synagogue of Satan’
- 3
News Why protests in Iran seem surprisingly pro-Israel
- 4
News Synagogue arson suspect posted satirical antisemitic cartoon on day of the attack
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Nick Fuentes says his problem with Trump ‘is that he is not Hitler’
-
Fast Forward Larry Ellison once renamed a superyacht because its name spelled backwards was ‘I’m a Nazi’
-
Fast Forward Alex Bregman, who drew a Jewish star on his cap after Oct. 7, inks $175M deal with the Cubs
-
Fast Forward Jewish caricature in Ukrainian Christmas tradition resurfaces at New Jersey church, drawing criticism
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
