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.
Opinion
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Opinion
Antisemitism in 3-D
Why is it so very difficult to combat the “new antisemitism”? To modern eyes, classical antisemitism is easy to recognize. Films showing Jews draining the blood of gentile children or plotting to take over the world are clearly antisemitic, and are not only vulgar and illegal, but socially unacceptable throughout the free world. Movies on…
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Opinion From Memory to History
I did not go to Auschwitz. I did not go to Majdanek or Treblinka, or to any other Nazi extermination camp. I remember only the skeletal children agonizing on the sidewalks of the Warsaw Ghetto, their stomachs swelled by hunger. I only discovered Auschwitz later, after the war. I went there with my parents, like…
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Letters January 21, 2005
For Rights Here, Too While we appreciate your recent article on our organization’s human rights work in North America (“Rabbis’ Group Focuses on Rights in U.S.,” January 14), there were two inaccuracies in the article that we would like to correct. The letter that Rabbis for Human Rights signed along with a coalition of religious…
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Opinion Abdicating Our Priestly Duties
It’s tempting to let last week’s Prince Harry Nazi-uniform episode pass from memory as a moment of meaningless comedy. Tempting but wrong, and not for the reason you may think. Twenty-year-old Harry, third in line for the British throne, attended a costume bash dressed in a khaki military shirt and swastika armband. He was photographed…
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Letters January 14, 2005
Unintelligent Designs In his December 24 opinion column (“A Former Atheist Gives Us a Reason To Believe”), David Klinghoffer refers to “Intelligent Design” as “an alternative scientific theory that seeks to explain how the complex features of living organisms arose.” Unfortunately, this has recently become an all-too-common mistake. “Intelligent Design,” a rebranded version of the…
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Opinion The Fischer Gambit
Of all the political surprises in Jerusalem this week, none shocked Israelis more than the government’s choice of an American economist, Stanley Fischer, a vice president at Citigroup, as the next governor of the Bank of Israel. The job, equivalent to Federal Reserve chief, is the second-most powerful post in the Israel economy after finance…
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Opinion Ariel Sharon: Man of Mystery
Prime Minister Sharon and his colleagues in Israel’s newly patched-together government now repeat, mantra-like, that the road map must be followed to its letter. Let us not look this gift horse too closely in the mouth; let us not dwell on that fact that when the road map was first put forward, in April of…
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Opinion Sanctifying Insubordination
Recently, the Israel Defense Forces dismissed a number of officers who, for religious reasons, signed a letter declaring that they would refuse to evacuate settlers from the Gaza Strip and some areas of the West Bank. This is most distressing, especially for Orthodox Jews, and most especially for Orthodox Jews who are Zionists or are…
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Opinion Sharon’s Misbegotten Miracle
The new Israeli government sworn in this week in Jerusalem is a stark testament to the power of one man’s will. Ariel Sharon, for a half-century the living embodiment of Israeli intransigence, has decided to remake Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians before his days are up, and he is willing to batter down any door,…
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Opinion A New Hope?
Mahmoud Abbas is now the elected head of the Palestinian movement, but he is far from being its leader. What is indeed striking, behind all the international hoopla, is how little power he actually possesses. The focus has been mainly on Abbas’s personal views and leadership style, a welcome contrast to those of his predecessor,…
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Opinion Dr. King’s Faith-based Initiative
On Martin Luther King Day, we are reminded of the significant role that progressive religious leadership can play within American society. When that leadership reaches beyond its own religious boundaries and builds working relationships and authentic bridges with other religious communities, the opportunities for positive social change become immense. In contrast to our present times,…
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