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
The Bush Administration’s Suffocating Secrecy
Even as the war in Iraq unfolded, President Bush signed an executive order Tuesday establishing a new policy on national security secrecy. The new secrecy policy had been awaited with anticipation, or dread, because it redefines what government information will be made available to the public and what will be withheld. The new Bush policy…
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Opinion Europe’s Blind Antisemitism…
In the Belgian capital of Brussels, as in most other parts of Western Europe, very few people carry guns. But everyone has a finger to point. The power of this observation was made especially clear to me one Saturday morning last fall as I walked several of my host family’s children to synagogue. It was…
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Opinion … Perceives All Jews as Representatives of Israel
In the minds of many here in Greece and across Europe, the State of Israel was and is considered the state of the Jews. The Greek public does not clearly distinguish between Israelis and Jews, and even government officials often refer to all Israelis as Jews in their speeches, although not maliciously. There are Greeks…
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Opinion Abraham’s Iraq Mistake
‘Turn it over and over, for everything is in it.” So the mishnaic tractate Pirke Avot tells us of the capaciousness of Torah: Everything that concerns us in our private or public lives is addressed by Jewish tradition — everything, including what America’s plans should be for post-war Iraq. In making the case for war,…
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Opinion Our Side
As America’s war machine rolled into action in the Middle East this week and humanity watched in awe and foreboding, there was no longer any denying the blunt fact that a new page was being written in world history. America, the world’s sole superpower, was claiming the right to make war anywhere — not for…
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Opinion Following the Map
If nothing else, President Bush’s announced plan to release his “road map” to Israeli-Palestinian peace gives the lie to those paranoid theories about a Jewish conspiracy driving America into war with Iraq. According to the conspiracy-mongers, invading Iraq was supposed to upset the Middle East apple cart in a way that would leave Israel free…
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Opinion First Reform Palestinian Authority, Then Negotiate
The urgency of Prime Minister Sharon’s efforts to bring about the reform of the Palestinian Authority and the emergence of a genuine, effective and trustworthy Palestinian partner for peace was driven home during my most recent visit to Israel leading a five-member congressional delegation. During our discussion, Sharon spoke frankly about the need for sweeping…
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Opinion The Iraqi Challenge to Pax Americana
Historians who examine the rise and fall of great powers frequently ask how a given power attained the status of empire. Some historians probe the essence of the imperialist urge — that is, they ask what awakened the aspirations that brought the great power to its preeminent status, since the growth of an empire has…
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Opinion Unleashing Women’s Leadership Potential
In the last two years, five of the most significant organizations in the Jewish community have elected a woman as president or chair, each for the first time in its history. This is not mere coincidence. It reflects the beginning of a historic change. Just five years ago, a study of 45 major American Jewish…
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Letters March 21, 2003
I am unable to fathom the journalistic justification for the strange way in which the Forward reported the story of my decision to ask the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly to review its position paper on homosexuality (“Foe of Gay Ban Won’t Head Conservative Panel,” March 7). This…
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Opinion Solidarity With Israel Does Not an American Jewish Identity Make
There needs to be a place on the spectrum for the recognition that Israel is not the natural center of American Jewish life. Unfortunately, the lack of such recognition reflects a deeper problem among American Jews — a mistaken notion that solidarity with Israel will substitute for deeper reflection about our Jewish purpose. Indeed, while…
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