Opinion

• 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…

  By Leonard Fein

  4 min read
• 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…

  Nov 5, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  What Democrats Must Do

  Democrats face a delicate balancing act. On one hand, they must use every tool at their disposal, building coalitions where possible, filibustering when necessary, in order to slow or block the worst extremes of the Bush agenda. On the other hand, they must begin a long process of reconnecting with the voters. The two goals…

  Nov 5, 2004 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman American Jews can’t agree about anything — except Iran

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry Trump’s new Gaza plan marks a radical break from Israeli policy — can it succeed?

  

• Emily Tamkin Is Mamdani bad or good for Jews? Here’s how to tell

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Living Under Water

  There’s an old joke about the British secret service learning that the polar ice cap is melting, threatening to drown the world within six months. The queen asks the clergy to go on television and prepare the public for the End. The archbishop of Canterbury goes first, urging his flock to receive sacraments and get…

  Nov 5, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Lesson From the ACLU On How To Admit Mistakes

  As we learned from this year’s presidential race, it is hard to forgive where there is no admission of error. So it was with joy and relief that I learned, October 18, that the American Civil Liberties Union finally had owned up to a whopper — the signing of a pledge, as a condition of…

  By Kathleen Peratis Nov 5, 2004 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  When Emotion Trumps Reason

  Over and over again this year, I’ve heard people say that although they’ve voted solidly Democratic in the past, they now lean Republican because of their concerns about Israel and the Middle East. I located a few warm bodies willing to explain the feelings that have compelled them to switch. My exploratory interviews found that…

  By Bethamie Horowitz Oct 29, 2004 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Voting and Change

  It may or may not be true that this election is the most important one in living memory, as some of its more heated partisans have taken to declaring. What’s beyond doubt is that it has been the most passionate — and the nastiest. The divisions in our body politic have deepened to the point…

  Oct 29, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Out of Gaza

  After all the buildup, it’s tempting to view the Knesset vote approving Prime Minister Sharon’s Gaza-West Bank disengagement plan this week as an anti-climax. What more can be said of a political idea that already has been discussed half to death and isn’t even close to being implemented? For starters, there is the passage of…

  Oct 29, 2004 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  A Deficit in Fiscal Sanity

  A generation from now, will our children and grandchildren have affordable health care? Will they have good schools? How high will their taxes be? A lot is riding on the policies our government enacts today. Yet in the presidential campaigns, the tough choices are largely obscured in heated, sometimes misleading rhetoric. If you are searching…

  By Iris Lav Oct 29, 2004 | 4 min read
• Letters

  October 29, 2004

  Without ‘Peoplehood,’ Judaism Is Meaningless When I began my career as a rabbi some 25 years ago, I was told by a senior colleague to “be prepared for everything and be surprised about nothing.” Over the course of the years, I have generally followed this sage advice, and there is very little that can shock…

  Oct 29, 2004 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  A People Divided By Minority Rule

  In both Israel and America, minorities in the Jewish world are attempting to impose their will on the majority. The outcome of these efforts will do much to determine the future course of Jewish politics. In Israel, the settler movement is campaigning to block the acceptance of Prime Minister Sharon’s disengagement plan from Gaza. That…

  By Eric Yoffie Oct 29, 2004 | 4 min read