Opinion

• Opinion

  A Word From Belfast

  In Northern Ireland, as in many conflict zones, the outline of a final peace settlement is clear. When we are collectively ready for it, a group of well-meaning old enemies will work it out on the back of a postcard over lunch. A peace process is a corrupting and hypocritical business. It falls between two…

  By Malachi O'Doherty

  4 min read
• Opinion

  Trembling Before Saying ‘God”

  God. There, I’ve said it. And I didn’t flinch. That’s the big divide, according to Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist who first came to prominence when he helped draft Newt Gingrich’s late and unlamented “Contract With America” back in 1994. Now Luntz is freely dispensing advice to Democrats in search of “values.” Or, more properly,…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 18, 2005 | 4 min read
• Letters

  February 11, 2005

  Fiction on the Orthodox Affects Societal Views My January 30 New York Times Book Review essay on fictional representation of Orthodox Judaism seems to have touched a nerve. Arts and culture writer Tova Mirvis, like other letter writers and bloggers, accuses me of trying to impose ideological standards on writers (“Judging a Book by Its…

  Feb 11, 2005 | 5 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 Americans keep getting killed in the West Bank. Here’s how the US could fight that awful trend

  

• Nora Berman First Camp Auschwitz, now Alligator Alcatraz — why the right is obsessed with commodifying brutality

  

• Dan Perry What exactly is going on between Israel and Syria — and is the prospect of peace dead?

  

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

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Back to School On Education

  The big news in Jewish education these days is, of course, the dramatic expansion in day school enrollment. We are indebted to Marvin Schick and the Avi Chai Foundation for providing us the count as of the 2003-2004 school year: There were 759 schools and 205,035 students. For those of us in the non-Orthodox community,…

  By Leonard Fein Feb 11, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Not Peace, but a Start

  Even the most enthusiastic boosters of this week’s Middle East summit in Sharm el-Sheikh aren’t claiming that the brief gathering signaled the dawn of some new era of harmony and peace. The meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, together with the heads of neighboring states, did little more than ratify some practical understandings that might,…

  Feb 11, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Bush’s Bad Budget

  President Bush is to be congratulated for recognizing in the new budget proposal he submitted to Congress this week that the gargantuan deficits he has engineered during the past four years represent a looming catastrophe. Inheriting a government that spent $1.8 trillion and ran an $86 billion surplus in the last year of Bill Clinton’s…

  Feb 11, 2005 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Confront the Extremists in Our Midst

  Why can’t American Jews call extremism by its name? Over the last year, I have looked on in dismay as Israeli settlers who openly oppose our most cherished values as Americans and as Jews have been treated by Jewish organizational leadership and the Jewish press with attitudes ranging from polite silence to sympathetic understanding. Even…

  By Eric Yoffie Feb 11, 2005 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  The Conservative Movement’s Double Standard

  For more than a decade, the Conservative movement has proclaimed its welcoming attitudes toward gay and lesbian Jews. As evidence, Conservative leaders have often cited the movement’s 1992 “Consensus Statement,” which affirms that “gays and lesbians are welcome in our congregations, youth groups, camps and schools.” They neglect to mention the other, less-than-inclusive portions of…

  By Ayelet Cohen Feb 11, 2005 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Encourage ‘Ownership’ and Save Social Security

  The very first monthly Social Security check was sent out in January 1940 to Ida Mae Fuller, of Ludlow, Vermont, age 65. After paying Social Security taxes for three years, since the program began on January 1, 1937, Fuller collected Social Security benefits for 35 years until her death in 1975, at age 100. The…

  By Rachel Siegel Feb 4, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  A Light Unto the United Nations… And Israel

  On January 24, the United Nations General Assembly held a special session commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps. Member states gathered in New York to recall how the world failed to prevent the most sadistic and maniacal element of Hitler’s war machine. But that is not all that was…

  By Roger Zakheim Feb 4, 2005 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Antisemitism Goes Public in Russia

  Hate crimes flourish in darkness. To name them and inform the public of their prevalence is the first step in shining a light. Natan Sharansky’s recent opinion article on this page describes how “classical” antisemitism used to be “easy to recognize,” “not only vulgar and illegal, but socially unacceptable throughout the free world.” Hardly a…

  By Mark B. Levin Feb 4, 2005 | 3 min read