Opinion

• Opinion

  And the Oscar Doesn’t Go To…

  With the DVD release of “The Passion of the Christ” on August 31, Mel Gibson will certainly make money. If he chooses, though, he also can use the occasion to make some interfaith peace. He can withdraw “The Passion” from Oscar consideration, thereby preempting a new round of acrimony at Academy Award time. Despite its…

  By Kevin Doyle

  3 min read
• Opinion

  The Dumbing Down Of Communal Identity

  The call for “Jewish continuity,” sounded by American Jewish communal leaders more than a decade ago as an antidote to rising intermarriage rates and other signs of weakening identity has spawned a veritable industry aimed at making American Jews more Jewish. There has been an ever-more impressive array of endeavors to promote day schools, send…

  By Bethamie Horowitz Aug 27, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Amend International Law To Allow Preemptive Strike on Iran

  Intelligence reports about Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons aimed at Israel are becoming ominous. Unless diplomatic pressure causes the Iranian mullahs to stop the project, Iran may be ready to deliver nuclear bombs against Israeli civilian targets within a few short years. Some Iranian leaders, such as former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, have made it…

  By Alan M. Dershowitz Aug 20, 2004 | 3 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

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

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  We Are All Pagans Now

  The return of the Olympic games to Greece, where they originated as a pagan festival honoring the king of the gods, Olympian Zeus, has had neo-pagans all worked up and excited. The games, which got started in 776 B.C., were banned by the Christian emperor Theodosius in 393 BCE on the grounds that they were…

  By David Klinghoffer Aug 20, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  When Time Isn’t on Israel’s Side

  Some 20 years ago, Ehud Olmert — now deputy prime minister of Israel, recently mayor of Jerusalem, back then a rising star in Israel’s right-wing firmament — was among the principal speakers at a United Jewish Appeal event in Silverado, a lovely retreat center in northern California. One day, the two of us took a…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 20, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Jimmy’s Problem, and Ours

  Every great movement for social change has its pivotal events, iconic moments of terrible clarity that capture the nation’s attention, shift the momentum and alter the course of the struggle. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a turning point in the rise of the labor movement. The triple murder of the three civil-rights workers, James Chaney,…

  Aug 20, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Studying Our Genes

  This week’s issue of the Forward includes the 10th-anniversary edition of our annual supplement on Jewish genetic research. It’s a feature that provides a unique service both to the Jewish community and to the broader society, and we’re proud to be able to offer it. The scientific field of Jewish genetics doesn’t receive much public…

  Aug 20, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  An Intelligent Choice to Lead The New CIA?

  I have never met Republican Rep. Porter Goss, nor have I ever spoken with him. Still, as the author of two books on convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, the fact that Goss could be the new director of the CIA gives great me cause for concern. First of all, let me say that I am not…

  By Elliot Goldenberg Aug 20, 2004 | 3 min read
• Letters

  August 20, 2004

  History of U.S. Zionism Kudos on the very interesting August 6 article on the history of the organized American Jewish community (“Hearts Ungovernable”). The Forward mentions the American Jewish Congress of the World War I, but does not mention the American Jewish Conference of World War II. It met at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New…

  Aug 20, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Arab Misunderstanding of Israel Moves From the Center to the Periphery

  Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail recently accused Israel of fomenting the violence in Darfur from its “base” in… Eritrea. Evidently he was undeterred by the 600 miles of inhospitable desert that Tel Aviv’s intrepid agents would have had to negotiate between Eritrea on Sudan’s east and Darfur in the country’s west. Or, for that…

  By Yossi Alpher Aug 20, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Smart Money Is on Israel, Again

  Last year, total foreign investment in Israeli companies was 61% higher than in 2002 and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange rose 50%. After four years of negative economic news, the smart money is investing Israel. As an export-oriented country, Israel’s economic well-being is closely tied to that of the United States and other Western nations….

  By Harry Langman Aug 13, 2004 | 3 min read