In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
How the GOP Won the Orthodox Vote
In the 2000 presidential election, 70% of Orthodox Jews voted for the Democratic ticket; in the 2004 presidential election, 70% of Orthodox Jews voted for the Republican ticket. While most of the American Jewish community remains stalwart in the Democratic camp, second only to African Americans, the Orthodox segment is clearly a swing vote. Despite…
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Opinion How the Democrats Lost the Youth Vote
On Election Day, I and my fellow “Gen Yers” were expected to carry John Kerry to the White House, but by late evening it was obvious we had failed to vote in numbers large enough to deliver the election for the senator. “The youth vote is bunk,” conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg declared gleefully. The thing…
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Opinion The Power of Change, or Just a Change in Power?
Who will succeed Yasser Arafat at the helm of the Palestinian national movement? The question is simply impossible to answer. The predictions we are hearing are based largely on speculation, rather than on substance. In intelligence-community parlance, the prospect of Arafat’s departure from the scene has thrust Palestinian politics and society into a “revolutionary situation”…
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Opinion Arab Street: We’re Bushed
Two editorial cartoons this week summed up Arab feelings about the re-election of President Bush. The London-based Saudi daily Asharq Al Awsat’s cartoonist drew Uncle Sam carrying a sign displaying Bush’s motto of the past four years, “With Us, Or Against Us”; alongside the image, a second frame offers the American president’s ultimatum for the…
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Opinion A Night of Broken Glass, on a Date With History
From the observation platform atop the restored Reichstag, the German parliament building, the most prominent landmark on the cityscape of central Berlin is the gleaming dome of the Moorish synagogue on Oranienburgerstrasse. When dedicated in 1866, in the presence of Otto von Bismarck and other Prussian dignitaries, it gave resounding expression to Berlin Jewry’s feeling…
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Opinion The Value Of Opposition
The moaning and groaning is neither helpful nor appropriate. There is every reason for concern, but none for despair. Beyond the fact that Senator John Kerry received more votes than any candidate for the presidency in American history — except, of course, George W. Bush — there is a mine of provocative data buried in…
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Opinion How the Jews Vote
There were two big myths that dominated public discussion of the Jewish vote during this election season, and both of them proved in the end to be wrong. One was that the Jewish vote no longer existed, that Jews had become either too divided, too few in number or too distant from Jewish group concerns…
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Opinion After Arafat
In thinking about how to address Yasser Arafat’s departure and its meaning for the Middle East, friends of Israel would do well to follow the lead set by Israeli Prime Minister Sharon in the past week, when he ordered his ministers to maintain a dignified silence despite their dislike for the man. Arafat was an…
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Letters November 5, 2004
Shuls Without a Prayer The picture of Szeged Synagogue mentioned in an October 29 article caught my attention, because my husband and I visited it in 2000 (“Built Judaism: How Synagogue Photography Opens Worlds”). The restored synagogue, with its cobalt blues and gold inlay, is truly awesome. I believe that Tony Curtis, the movie actor,…
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Opinion Heal the Rift In Our Nation
It wasn’t until I traveled to Florida just as the election campaign was nearing its conclusion that I understood how very deeply our nation is divided. Living, as I do, in Massachusetts — quite decisively a nonbattleground state — I have been aware only at a distance of the frequency and the brutality of the…
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Opinion The President’s Mandate
The results of this election will be analyzed, spun and dissected for years, but one cardinal message must be clear in our minds: The Republicans have become this nation’s majority party. Democrats need to look that reality in the face, absorb it and begin to plan their next moves accordingly. Four years ago, the Republican…
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