Opinion

• Letters

  August 15, 2003

  Film Festival Promoted By Top-Notch Publicists As one of the publicists for the Israel Film Festival in Chicago, this year and last, I would like to extend an invitation to Forward film critic Daphne Merkin to call us anytime (“Exporting Homegrown Culture: Can Israeli Cinema Go Global?”, August 8). I am sorry she had a…

  5 min read
• Opinion

  The Doctor Steps Out

  Top-rated radio host Laura Schlessinger shocked both supporters and critics last week by telling her 12 million listeners that she was no longer observing Orthodox Jewish rites and rituals. Known to most as Dr. Laura, Schlessinger previously made news by converting to Judaism — twice — first under the auspices of the Conservative movement, then…

  Aug 15, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Recall Returns GOP to Center

  While the national media has been having a field day with the recall of Governor Gray Davis, we here in California have a perspective on the October 7 vote that has less to do with the big screen and more to do with the ballot box. What to pundits in the East appears to be…

  By Lawrence Molton Aug 15, 2003 | 4 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

  Send Arab Soldiers Into Iraq

  The Iraq morass looks bleaker every day, with American casualty numbers rising and the expenses associated with military deployments raising questions of affordability. Yet in testimony to Congress last month, the commander of American forces in the region, General Tommy Franks, maintained that American troop levels — now numbering about 148,000 — would not drop…

  By Donald Losman Aug 15, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  A Jewish State, Or State of Jews?

  The conventional explanation for Israel’s more controversial measures, including in particular the security fence now under construction and the new marriage law passed by the Knesset, is that these are responses to the ongoing conflict. (The new marriage law cancels the automatic citizenship hitherto accorded Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens.) But underlying that explanation, there…

  By Leonard Fein Aug 8, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Enabling Disaster

  In quietly ramping down the demands it is making of Israel and the Palestinians under the Middle East road map, the Bush administration seems to think it has hit upon a clever tactic for buying time and avoiding conflict. It’s more likely to prove a recipe for a new explosion. The plan, as Ori Nir…

  Aug 8, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  ‘Russian’ Immigrants, In Search of a Communal Identity

  In Russia we were called “Zhids.” Here in America we are called “Russians.” Why is it that no one, including ourselves, seems to be calling us what we are: Jews? At the first annual “Russian Heritage Week,” held in June in New York with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s blessing, the best and brightest of our community…

  By Leah Moses Aug 8, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Reporting On History In the Making

  In his July 25 review of my book “Shattered Dreams,” Itamar Rabinovitch implies that any account which differs from those presented by “Clinton, Barak, Shlomo Ben-Ami, Dennis Ross” should be considered as “revisionist” (“Camp David Redux: The Reporter As Chronicler and Participant”). To this list of names, he adds Saudi Prince Bandar, “who blamed Arafat…

  By Charles Enderlin Aug 8, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Particular Poignancy of Tisha B’Av, This Year in Jerusalem

  Last March I spoke out publicly to express my distress when a scheduling difficulty made it impossible for Uri Lupolianski, an ultra-Orthodox Jew who was then the acting mayor of Jerusalem, to meet with a delegation from the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion’s Board of Governors. We had come to Israel to express solidarity…

  By David Ellenson Aug 8, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Demolishing Homes While Mourning Lost Temple?

  This Thursday, while Israelis across town marked Tisha B’Av by mourning the destruction of our Temple, as many as 45 Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhoods of Jabel Mukaber, Sur Bacher, Shuafat and Beit Hanina were facing the impending demolition of their homes. None of these families, who in recent weeks had been informed…

  By Brian Walt Aug 8, 2003 | 3 min read
• Letters

  August 8, 2003

  Specter: Mideast, Court Stances Stand on Facts I was surprised to read in a July 18 article a Democratic activist quoted as saying that, “Specter says [to the Jewish community], ‘I’m Jewish. Vote for me’” (“Specter Squeezed from Left, Right”). I have never and would never take such a presumptuous position. With some familiarity with…

  Aug 8, 2003 | 6 min read