Opinion

• Opinion

  Total Recall

  Now that voters in California have had their say and chosen to replace their Democratic governor with a Republican one, Democrats around the country need to sit down and do some hard thinking about what they want to be when they grow up. Many Democrats will view the recall of Gray Davis and his replacement…

  2 min read
• Opinion

  The Lessons of Yom Kippur

  Synagogue-goers across America this past Monday found themselves, for the half-hour or so of their rabbi’s sermon, plunged headlong into the emotional thicket of the Middle East conflict and the existential dangers facing Israel and Israelis today. In an unusual, nationally coordinated campaign mounted at the behest of Israel’s Tourism Ministry, hundreds of pulpit rabbis…

  Oct 10, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Prescribe Standardization for Sick Health Care System

  The American health care system is, quite literally, sick. Our health care system was not designed. It was not thought out. It is no more than hundreds of patchwork pieces, stitched together over time. The resulting mosaic is a confusing tapestry — with gaps and pieces dangling in the air, and connections that make no…

  By David Chess Oct 10, 2003 | 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 I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Edward Said: Inclusive Mind, Exclusive Idea

  I found out about the death of Edward Said, the Columbia University professor and advocate of the Palestinian cause, from friends in synagogue only on the first night of Rosh Hashanah. I had been too preoccupied with preparations for the holiday to see the news of his passing the day before. That night I dreamt…

  By Alan Mintz Oct 10, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Pope John Paul II’s More Friendly, More Foreign Vatican

  News photos of an ailing John Paul II unable to deliver a speech in Slovakia in September were heart-rending. Unwilling to give up but unable to carry on, the figure of the 83-year-old Polish pope, virtually immobile and slumped in his chair, was a far cry from the vibrant and strapping 58 year old who…

  By Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Oct 10, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Sin of the Year

  Here we go again: The Yom Kippur confessional is upon us, our annual alphabetical recitation of our sins and transgressions, from “ashamnu” to “titanu,” from avarice to xenophobia and zealotry. The list never changes; the question it poses, somewhat tediously, is whether we have changed. While it may be thought useful to have a list…

  By Leonard Fein Oct 3, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Speaking Truth to Bush

  Looking at those depressing new poverty statistics released by the Census Bureau last week, it’s tempting for liberals to lay all the blame on President Bush. The percentage of Americans living in poverty rose last year, on Bush’s watch, by four-tenths of a percent, or about 1.7 million people. It was the second straight year…

  Oct 3, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Making America’s Case

  A study group appointed by the State Department last spring to explore America’s image in the Arab and Muslim world came back this week with a sobering if unsurprising conclusion: America is none too popular in those precincts, and our unpopularity is dangerous to our health. “Hostility toward America has reached shocking levels,” the study…

  Oct 3, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  The Sins We Have Sinned

  It’s not clear how it happened, but somehow Yom Kippur seems to have been canceled this year. The public is duly warned. That’s right: Jews are not permitted this year to find fault in themselves or to repent of any wrongdoing. We have done nothing wrong. It’s official. All our troubles are somebody else’s fault….

  Oct 3, 2003 | 2 min read
• Letters

  October 3, 2003

  Communal Celebration Not Just a Private Party I am grateful to Karla Goldman for her thoughtful September 19 opinion article on the planning conference convened by Celebrate 350 (“Throw an Open Party for U.S. Jewry’s 350th”). Goldman recognizes the historic significance of the celebration to be launched officially in September 2004, 350 years after the…

  Oct 3, 2003 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  The World’s Woes, As Soap Opera

  Reality has invaded the West Wing — or, rather, “The West Wing.” Yes, America’s favorite political soap opera, after two years of inhabiting an alternative dimension where Democrats still ruled the roost and conflicts were always resolved with a hug, decided in its season premiere last week to catch up with the real world. Suddenly…

  By Oren Rawls Oct 3, 2003 | 3 min read