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.
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.
The failings of the United Nations are so familiar by now and the disappointment in it is so deep that it’s hard to imagine the organization letting us down any further. Remarkably, that’s just what it has contrived to do as its General Assembly convenes in New York this week for its 60th anniversary gala…
These last weeks of summer, as the days shorten and the winter chill looms, are designated in the traditional Jewish calendar as the month of Ellul. It is the last month before the New Year, set aside as a time for reflecting and for taking stock. In a few weeks we will be called on…
If you are a Jew who believes that the American government’s invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a terrible ethical and practical misdeed, you now find yourself walking amid landmines. There is a broad spectrum of organizations that opposed the invasion of Iraq and is working to end the American military presence there. Many…
We therefore offer several suggestions as co-explorers of the difficult trails of Muslim-Jewish dialogue. Reflecting the issues of deepest concern in our respective communities, there are several points that Jews would like to hear about from a Muslim leader and others that they need to hear. First, Jews would like an unambiguous statement condemning antisemitism….
It was as though the administration was in a bubble as millions of Americans watched and immediately understood the enormity of this national disaster. Unfortunately, Floridians have seen this denial before. As FEMA handed out more than $30 million to residents of Miami-Dade County who had made fraudulent claims after Hurricane Frances last year, Brown…
Faith and Faithfulness I applaud the moral content of David Klinghoffer’s recent column on adultery (“Bigger Than Brad and Jen,” September 2). But Klinghoffer’s real argument, that only mighty religious commands can deter infidelity while weak secular ethics actually encourage it, is absurd. Actually, only thanks to secular ethics can anyone condemn Brad for two-timing…
It is too early to assess the full scope of Hurricane Katrina, much less its larger meaning. It will be months before we have a clear sense of the disaster’s toll on the national economy, and years before we know if New Orleans can be revived. Even counting the dead will take weeks. What does…
Amid the unfolding national furor over the storm and its aftermath, it’s hard not to notice the silence of the major national Jewish public-policy agencies. As Eve Kessler reports on Page 1, most had nothing to say on this, the gravest American public policy crisis in years, and those that commented did so only under…
Building on a new study of Jewish identity among the children of intermarriage, the Forward editorialized about the alleged failings of the organized Jewish community. In its July 8 editorial, “Welcoming the New Jews” — i.e. the offspring of mixed marriages — the Forward declared: “The Jewish community needs to come to terms with the…
All the wellsprings of the great deep burst And the casements of the heavens were opened. (Genesis 7:11) In New Orleans, the order was reversed: First it was the casements of the heavens that were opened, and only then did the wellsprings of the great deep burst. “A flood of Biblical proportions,” many people called…
Now that Israel has completed its evacuation of settlements in Gaza and the northern West Bank, many uncertainties that plagued us for the past several months have been resolved. The Israeli government showed that it could successfully implement its disengagement policy in the face of tumultuous public protests. And it did so with remarkable compassion…