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.
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.
It’s a curious phenomenon in today’s Middle East debate that those who speak most passionately of peace are frequently the least willing to take the steps needed to bring it. Friends and defenders of Israel have mounted an international campaign in recent days to block the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons for involvement…
This week marks the 400th issue of our sister publication, the Russian-language Forward. For us here at the Forward family of newspapers, it’s a moment of pride and celebration. We’d like to think, though, that the celebration and the pride are shared by Jews around New York and across America. From its modest beginnings in…
Last month, as the violence raged unabated, more than 400 Israelis and 100 Palestinians gathered in front of Jaffa Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem to create a human chain in support of the peace process. The demonstration, newsworthy in its own right, also featured the unique spectacle of a group of gay Palestinians…
Did you hear the latest campus calamity? Interdenominational dating. That’s right, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist and even unaffiliated Jews are dating one another without regard to their denomination! This dangerous trend was brought to the public’s attention by a pair of well-meaning graduate students concerned about the assimilation of Orthodox students in secular universities. Hillel,…
I first visited the site of the Belzec death camp in 1979. I knew I stood at a place where nearly 500,000 Jews had been murdered from March to December 1942, but what I saw was a place long neglected and forgotten. The Germans, anxious to hide their genocide in 1943, removed the bodies from…
The antisemitism revealed in his diaries is a stain on his reputation. Still, he remains a hero of Israel
‘Chutzpah” was the title of an editorial in the June 6 issue of the Forward; the alleged audacity referred to was the Republican leadership’s exclusion of low-wage families from the recently enacted increase in the federal tax credit for families with dependent children. The editorial noted that “50 million households — those that most need…
Israel Experience Vital Elan Ezrachi’s July 4 opinion article was a cogent reminder that for Diaspora Jewry, “it is more dangerous not to travel to Israel than it is to visit the Jewish state” (“Missing the Experience of a Lifetime”). He’s absolutely right. The growing indifference and alienation of the young can erode even Judaism….
Some issues of Jewish life neither die nor even fade away. The most telling current evidence of that is the re-emergence, in recent weeks, of the “Is that a Jewish issue?” issue. Why, that is, should Jews — as Jews — care about this problem or that? Oughtn’t the Jewish agenda be limited to those…
As the signed petitions pile up, Californians look ever more likely to head for the polls this fall to recall their hapless governor, Gray Davis. His crime? Opponents call it fiscal mismanagement. But his real crime might best be called DWD, or Driving While Democratic. His foes are simply out for blood. Davis is being…
This week marks the ninth anniversary of the most deadly antisemitic attack since World War II: the 1994 bombing of the Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people. To this day, the crime remains unsolved and families of the victims continue their fight for justice. Argentina’s investigation has been marred by bureaucratic…
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