Opinion

• Opinion

  For Those Who Defend Our Liberties

  The incessant talking heads on our television sets commenting ad nauseam about Operation Iraqi Freedom have slowed to a trickle. The screaming newspaper headlines closely following the progress of the war have decreased in font size and have become a mere whimper. Troops have begun to rapidly leave the battlefield with many having already returned…

  By Maurice Kaprow

  5 min read
• Opinion

  The Old Man Of the Mountain

  It was a big game for the Warner team in the Kearsarge Mountain League. The first against the Hopkinton Yankees. My son Sam had a good day. Three singles, two walks, played first without an error. Batting second, he stood at the plate with style, a nice rhythmic hip wag as the pitcher wound up….

  By Roy Morrison May 16, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Can the U.N. Distinguish Human Rights From Wrong?

  Several weeks ago the United Nations Commission on Human Rights opted yet again to defile its own mandate by inviting one the world’s foremost human rights abusers to rejoin its ranks in the upcoming 59th session. In a vote undertaken by the Latin American regional group, Fidel Castro’s Cuba was reelected without opposition to a…

  By Daniel Mariaschin and Joel Kaplan May 16, 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 There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate 

  

• Nora Berman The Kennedy Center canceled its ‘woke’ programming — so why is this Jewish musical OK?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

• Letters

  May 9, 2003

  Heschel’s Views on Dialogue Distorted In his explication of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s views regarding Jewish-Christian dialogue, opinion writer Meir Soloveichik misrepresents the views of my father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the major Jewish figures in the ecumenical movement (“How Soloveitchik Saw Interreligious Dialogue,” April 25). Meir Soloveichik claims that my father, in…

  May 9, 2003 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  Mobilize the Homefront

  George W. Bush’s America — like its loyal friend Israel — has once again demonstrated the old saw that democracies are slow to anger, but once mobilized they are well-nigh unstoppable. Just as Israel did reluctantly and belatedly last spring, the United States has demonstrated in Afghanistan and in Iraq that you cannot defeat terrorism…

  By Gil Troy May 9, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Labor’s Message

  Amram Mitzna appeared on the world stage last fall with the suddenness of a meteor when he was elected chairman of Israel’s opposition Labor Party. His ignominious resignation this week, barely six months into his tenure, continues the meteoric metaphor. He simply flamed out, leaving behind a gloom that seemed deeper than before. The movement…

  May 9, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Campaign Finance Goes to Court

  Some things never change. Liberals and good-government types were cheering last year when President Bush signed into law the heralded McCain-Feingold Bill, meant to limit the flow of big money into political campaigns. The cheers were premature. Last week, when a three-judge panel in Washington struck down several of the law’s key provisions, many of…

  May 9, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Is Joe Bad for Jews? No, But Timidity Is

  The American Jewish community may be the most politically sophisticated ethnic or religious group in America. After all, Jews — who make up only 2% of the American populace — are highly over-represented as voters, as contributors, as elected officials on the federal level, as appointees to high government office, as campaign contributors, as political…

  By Ira Forman May 9, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  The Wonder That Is Israel

  Israel’s 55th birthday this week is a time to step back, if just for a moment, from the whirlwind of daily events — terrorist attacks against Israelis, road map prognostications, internal Palestinian maneuvering, Labor Party changes in Israel — and reflect on the larger picture. The story of Israel these last 55 years, above all,…

  By David A. Harris May 9, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Buy the Settlers Out

  The Palestinians insist that any final settlement to their conflict with Israel must include the establishment of a state in all of the West Bank and Gaza. The current government of Israel, for its part, has shown its reluctance to evacuate any of the estimated 140 settlements. How, then, to reach a settlement on the…

  By Marcia Freedman May 2, 2003 | 3 min read
• Letters

  May 2, 2003

  Understanding of Poles Includes Remembering I was surprised to read opinion writer Wladyslaw Bartoszewski calling for a new understanding between Jews and Poles (“On Warsaw Ghetto Anniversary, A Pole Calls for Understanding,” April 18). My mother told me she hid in a neighbor’s cellar with her family during the pogroms in Poland. She was a…

  May 2, 2003 | 5 min read