Opinion

• Opinion

  Hanukkah, Forever New

  In trying, as we do every year on this page, to understand Hanukkah’s magical hold on the American Jewish imagination, it’s worth examining the holiday’s marvelous malleability, its Zelig-like capacity for embodying the very values that each generation needs it to uphold. Yes, drowning out Bing Crosby is part of the holiday’s appeal, but only…

  4 min read
• Letters

  December 10, 2004

  ‘Chrismukkah’ Holiday Shamefully Plagiarizes We are deeply concerned about the spiritual misrepresentation of a newly created “holiday” called Chrismukkah (“Meppy Chrismukkah!” December 3). While we as Jews and Christians practice our particular traditions, we also want to see the spiritual integrity of both faiths fully protected. Hanukkah and Christmas celebrated during the same period should…

  Dec 10, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Too Hot for San Diego

  Young Judea as a boy and his brother immigrated to Israel. Over a good bottle of Santa Ynez cabernet, I told him that President Bush was pandering to American Jews by blocking progress on an Israeli-Palestinian accord. Bush kowtows to Prime Minister Sharon, I said, blocking progress toward a settlement and a viable Palestinian state….

  By James Goldsborough Dec 10, 2004 | 6 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

• Letters

  December 10, 2004

  Notice of Appl. for Auth. of 823 PARK AVENUE MEZZ, LLC, a foreign limited liability company (LLC). Appl. for Auth. filed with Secy. of State of NY (SSNY) on 7/13/04. LLC organized in DE on 7/7/04. NY office location: New York County. SSNY designated as agent of the LLC upon whom process against it may…

  Dec 10, 2004 | 19 min read
• Opinion

  Less Than Reassuring Words at Columbia University

  The question of whether an anti-Israel atmosphere exists at Columbia University, as alleged in recent news reports, will presumably be answered in an internal investigation. But it’s apparent from a recent event hosted at that Ivy League campus that pro-Israel views, regardless of ideological shading, are under seige. Columbia hosted a November 20 forum titled…

  By Ralph Seliger Dec 10, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Spooked Agencies

  The nature of a country’s intelligence gathering and military or paramilitary operations has to change in accordance with changing threats to its security. This seems to be a fairly sound national security principle. But as we have seen in recent months and years in both Israel and the United States, the conceptualization and actual implementation…

  By Yossi Alpher Dec 10, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Let the Voice Of Peace Be Heard

  Immediately after Yasser Arafat’s death, Prime Minister Sharon announced that his test for “exposing the true face” of the new Palestinian leaders would be an end to incitement against Israel in the Palestinian media and education system. The prime minister was correct to insist on an end to inflammatory messages emanating from Palestinian sources. But…

  By Luis Lainer Dec 10, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Two Viktors and Ukraine’s Soil

  the Black Sea through Belarus and Lithuania to the North Sea. Places with names like Chernowitz, Kamenetz, Lutsk and Dubno are imprinted in our genes and on our driver’s licenses. We were there far longer than we have been in America. It was there that the greatest flowering of modern Jewish culture took place, from…

  Dec 3, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Reforming the U.N.

  Kofi Annan delivered a surprise Hanukkah gift to friends of Israel and democracy this week, in the form of a United Nations reform plan that includes, at long last, a clear and usable definition of terrorism. Ruling out “mitigating” circumstances like occupation, the report is said to declare that terrorism against civilians “is never an…

  Dec 3, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Blindness to Household Labor Rights

  The first two women nominated to be attorney general of the United States, Zoe Baird and Kimbe Wood, withdrew their names in quick succession, both having been exposed as domestic scofflaws — they employed (apparently) undocumented foreign workers to care for their children, and they (apparently) did not pay Social Security taxes on their wages….

  By Kathleen Peratis Dec 3, 2004 | 4 min read
• Letters

  December 3, 2004

  Magazine Cruises Offer Opportunity To Unite A November 26 article describes how The Weekly Standard and The Nation magazines have taken to the high seas as part of their respective fundraising efforts (“From Port to Starboard, Magazines Take to High Seas Towing the Party Line”). With much irony, the Forward inveighs against the bourgeois underpinnings…

  Dec 3, 2004 | 2 min read