In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Bolting for Bush
I am a lifelong Democrat. I was elected to New York’s City Council, Congress and three terms as mayor of New York City on the Democratic Party line. I believe in the values of the Democratic Party as articulated by Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and by Senators…
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Opinion Pouring Fuel on Israel’s Fire
Quite naturally, our attention when we think of Israel is principally focused on issues of war and peace: the intifada, the persistent terrorism, the halting peace efforts both governmental and private, the occupation and so forth. But there is, of course, another Israel — not the Israel of the deadly headlines, but the Israel where…
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Letters January 2, 2004
Don’t Count GOP Votes Before They’re Hatched In your interview with Senator Norm Coleman, he expresses the view that “in the Arab world people understand strength” and that the policies of the Bush administration, including the current war in Iraq, will redound to the benefit of Israel and help persuade Jewish voters to side with…
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Opinion Iran’s Victims
Our minds balk in the face of biblical-scale catastrophes of the sort visited last week on the Iranian city of Bam. As the earthquake’s victim count rises into meaningless strings of digits — 20,000 dead, then 25,000, then 30,000 and still climbing — we become numb. What, precisely, is the meaning of “limitless”? How can…
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Opinion The Generals’ Discontent
Of all the conflicts underway in the strife-torn Middle East, none is more riveting, to those who can follow it, than the quietly growing demurral of Israel’s senior military commanders from the direction in which their political leaders are taking their country. One after another a parade of current and former Israeli defense and intelligence…
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Opinion Table Talk For the Holidays
A few questions for dinner-table conversation during the holiday season: The cultural gap between France and the United States has never been more blatant than now, as the French move toward banishing the wearing in public schools of kippot, Muslim headscarves and large crosses. That proposal, vehemently endorsed by President Jacques Chirac, reportedly has the…
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Opinion Spirit of the Maccabees
Along with candle-lighting, gift-giving and deep-fried foods, the festival of Chanukah has lately acquired a new ritual that seems rapidly to be gaining canonical status in American Judaism: a yearly barrage of high-minded commentary intended to pour cold water on the fun. No Chanukah celebration is complete these days without a few stern reminders that…
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Opinion Who, Who?
Armed with press releases and draped in full-body owl costumes, a handful of feathered feminists staged a demonstration last week in front of the headquarters of the United Jewish Communities. The walking birds were members of Jewish Women Watching, a women’s rights group whose members famously refuse to identify themselves while launching campaigns aimed at…
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Opinion A Study in Jewish Growth
One of the most noteworthy trends in American Jewish life is the growing proportion of Jewish adults who have taken Jewish studies courses in college. From the most recent National Jewish Population Survey, we learn that among students enrolled in college and or graduate school in 2000-2001, 41% have taken such a course, representing a…
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Opinion Pro-Israel Activism Makes Comeback on Campus
When the anti-Iraq war movement first burst on the scene, Israel’s core detractors recognized an opportunity to leverage a unique confluence of political dynamics. Thirty million echo-boomers entered the political arena for the first time, anti-war sentiment burgeoned on campus and a radical anti-Israel orientation continued to pervade much of the national leadership of the…
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Opinion The Welfare of Children
In 1996, President Bill Clinton, seeking to fulfill a campaign promise “to end welfare as we know it,” signed a welfare reform law that turned the cash assistance entitlement program into a block grant to states, set lifetime time limits on use of federal funds for welfare, and adopted a work-first philosophy for welfare recipients….
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