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
Shelter From the Storms
The festival of Sukkot, which begins Wednesday night, September 29, is known for the custom among observant Jews of building sukkahs, or booths, in their backyards and on their rooftops. The booths, open to the sky and the elements, are meant to symbolize the fragile, transient quality of the Hebrews’ journey through the wilderness on…
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Opinion Overcoming Israel’s Separation Anxiety
As the year 5765 opens, for Israel the writing is on the wall. The country’s morale is being undermined; its resources are eaten up in a fruitless struggle. Since the beginning of the second Palestinian uprising four years ago, Israel’s economic position has deteriorated in comparison with other developed countries, and even compared with some…
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Letters September 24, 2004
In Bush We Trust Columnist Leonard Fein finds it difficult to understand why 46% of voters “imagine that Bush is more trustworthy than Kerry regarding Supreme Court nominations” (“Heads I Win, Tails You Lose,” September 17). As a member of that 46%, let me explain. A president’s Supreme Court nominations are more likely to be…
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Opinion A Place for Politics in the Pulpit
I used to be one of those conservatives who bemoan political sermons from the pulpit. This was some years ago — starting when I was in high school and the rabbi at our Reform temple would spend his precious half hour after the High Holy Days fund-raising appeal browbeating the congregation about the perils of…
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Opinion Mortgaging Our Future
While the eyes of the nation were riveted last week on the news that American combat deaths in Iraq had passed the 1,000 mark, a far more frightening statistic was released with far less fanfare. The federal budget deficit hit a record $422 billion for the first nine months of 2004, according to the nonpartisan…
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Letters September 17, 2004
‘Madness’ Didn’t Drive The Butchers of Beslan The shocking outcome of the hostage taking at Beslan was described appropriately in your editorial, “The Madness of Beslan” (September 10), as depraved and horrifying. But calling it “madness” serves only to confuse a moral issue with a medical one: madness or psychosis. It is crucial to understand…
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Opinion Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
In a debate the other night at the annual meeting of Cleveland’s Jewish Community Relations Council, Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe’s well-spoken conservative columnist, remarked that “Since 9/11, there’s been no 9/11.” That, he argued, is evidence that President Bush is doing a good job in defending the nation against terrorism and deserves our support…
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Letters September 10, 2004
Dumbing Down Identity I was taken by Bethamie Horowitz’s August 27 opinion column (“The Dumbing Down of Communal Identity”). It has always seemed obvious to me that the one key aspect of Jewish identity has to be its meaning, as assessed individually. If I am Jewish because to me Judaism teaches religious truths about the…
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Opinion Sharon: Pathetic, Heroic, Villainous
W ill the real Ariel Sharon please stand up? Probably not. Indeed, it’s entirely possible that Sharon does not know which of his personae is the “real” one. There’s the pathetic Sharon, and the heroic Sharon, and the villainous Sharon — and just now, they seem to be in terminal competition with one another. The…
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Opinion The Madness of Beslan
In a place where there are no human beings, the Talmud teaches, see to it that you remain human. When those around you have lost their humanity, cut themselves off from the divine spark within them, that is the time to cling to your humanity with all your might. In a time of madness, keep…
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Opinion A New Year
It has become a custom of this newspaper each September to note the arrival of the Jewish New Year with a doleful comment on the state of the world this particular month and the hope that things will change in the year ahead. Four years ago we were saddened by the eruption of the Palestinian…
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News Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s selection as JTS commencement speaker roils graduating class
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Film & TV A new documentary challenges stereotypes about Orthodox Jewish women — and their wigs
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News Analysis: As Democrats unite behind Platner, Schumer’s future as leader faces tests
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Sports NBA coach Steve Kerr: ‘Israel sought revenge for Oct. 7 and now 72,000 Palestinians have been killed’
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Antisemitism Decoded The great antisemitism rug pull
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Culture An Israeli genocide scholar looks to Israel’s history to understand ‘what went wrong’
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Yiddish טשיקאַוועסן: אַ ירושה פֿון 200 ייִדישע חפֿצים געפֿינט אַ הייםTidbits: An inheritance of 200 pieces of Judaica finds a home
דעבאָראַ בראָדי, אַ לערערין פֿון קינדער מיט ספּעציעלע באַדערפֿענישן, האָט זיי געלאָזט אָנטאַפּן די זאַכן.
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Opinion The new face of Holocaust denial is harder to spot — and more dangerous