Opinion

• 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…

  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

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz My summer plans prove it: The Jewish Catskills are alive and kicking

  

• Rob Eshman ‘Remember the Liberty’ has become code for ‘Israel Is Evil’ 

  

• Dan Perry The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel

  

• Emily Tamkin Outrage over Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed on sexual assault of Palestinians is missing the point

  

• Jay Michaelson You’re wrong, Ken Paxton: Obviously God is nonbinary

  

The Latest

• 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
• Letters

  March 24, 2006

  Rabbi’s ‘Medical’ View Of Gays Simply Wrong I should like to thank the Conservative movement Rabbinical Assembly’s Rabbi Leonard Levy for giving us his expert medical opinion on the nature of homosexuality (“Gay Issues Roil Rabbis In Advance Of Parley,” March 17). Were we not in the blessed position of being enlightened by Levy, we…

  Mar 24, 2006 | 3 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
• Opinion

  In Dark Times, Blame the Jews

  On the face of it, there’s little that’s new in the provocative research paper “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” published online last week by two leading political scientists, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. Their underlying thesis, that Israel’s advocates have pressured America into an unjustified and damaging alliance with Israel, has been around…

  Mar 24, 2006 | 7 min read
• Opinion

  A Moderate in America, With No Political Party To Call Home

  I propose importing Kadima, Israel’s new centrist party, to the United States. I don’t mean that we need yet another Jewish organization; quite the contrary. Instead I am plugging an excellent observation first sketched by Jonathan Rauch in the March issue of the Atlantic Monthly. In his essay, Rauch argues that American politics is broken…

  By David Twersky Mar 24, 2006 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  The U.N. Reforms, Despite Bolton’s Best Efforts

  The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has long been an embarrassment to the decent nations of the world. Its membership has included the world’s worst abusers of human rights — Sudan, for example, and Cuba and Zimbabwe — who have used their membership to protect themselves and each other from condemnation for their human…

  By Kathleen Peratis Mar 24, 2006 | 4 min read