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
Mitzna’s Choice
Ariel Sharon faces a daunting challenge as he attempts to sort out the results of this week’s Knesset elections and put together a government that can lead Israel into the next phase of its struggles. All those who care about Israel’s welfare, even those who disagree with Sharon’s vision and his methods, must wish him…
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Opinion Perfect? No. But UJC Is a Success Story
I’m baffled and left wondering what motivates those who trade in misinformation and are selective in memory and gathering of facts. On this page last week, United Jewish Communities and the continental Jewish federation system were erroneously portrayed as lacking in purpose and in tangible results (“Ill UJC Needs Second Opinion,” by Shoshana Cardin). This…
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Opinion Animal Rights and the Political Animal
Is Judaism a religion of the left or the right? Or neither? I raise the question because I’ve been reading a new book that on the surface seems to have little to do with Judaism. Matthew Scully’s “Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy” is one of the…
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Opinion Roe at 30
“And if men strive together, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart, and yet no harm follow, he shall be surely fined, according as the woman’s husband shall lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if any harm follow, then thou shalt give life for life,…
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Opinion Jews in Space
The liftoff of Israel’s first astronaut, Colonel Ilan Ramon, has Jews around the world going space-crazy. Synagogues, Internet sites and Chinese restaurants from coast to coast are abuzz with nonstop Ramon-mania. Ramon, though not personally observant, has decided to keep kosher in space. He asked Israel’s national Holocaust authority, Yad Vashem, to give him a…
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Opinion One-Track Minds on Two-Track Mideast Solutions
In 1975, Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders scandalized Congress by becoming the first administration official to tell lawmakers that the Palestinian problem was the “heart of the conflict” between Israel and its Arab adversaries. Despite the shellacking Saunders took for his stance, a generation of Israeli and Western peacemakers ultimately adopted his view that…
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Opinion My Good Doctor: Two Pleas for Understanding
The following exchange began with a letter to the Forward from Dr. Marek Edelman calling on his fellow physician, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, to help initiate a joint Jewish-Palestinian movement for peace in the Middle East. Edelman’s letter and Barghouti’s response appear below. Edelman, a cardiologist and human rights activist, is the last surviving leader of…
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Letters January 24, 2003
Editorialist Misreads Human Rights Report’s Focus on U.S., Israel The editorialist seems willfully to have misunderstood why Human Rights Watch began its 2003 World Report with a discussion of the United States (“Human Rights Dodge,” January 17). The Forward asserts that “America is not the world’s leading abuser,” as if Human Rights Watch suggested it…
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Opinion Ill UJC Needs Second Opinion
The ineffectiveness and torpor that pervades United Jewish Communities offers little comfort to those of us who were concerned and had misgivings about the overreaching and overly ambitious attempt to create a single entity that would be responsible for community services, resource development and allocations. Our federated system needs a central, collaborative and collective entity…
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Opinion The Semi-Cracked State of the Glass Ceiling in Israel
Since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel has had the image of a state in which women enjoy a full measure of equality. However, this image is somewhat misleading. The struggle for gender equality in Israel has been an uphill battle. Though the predominant ethos of the Zionist movement and the State of…
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Opinion Israel, Beyond The Terrorism
Oddly energized by the intellectual onslaught against the Jewish state, “Israel advocacy” is hot on campus these days. Yet there must be more to a Jew’s relationship with the Jewish state than countering “myths” with “facts.” We need a more positive and meaningful engagement with Israel. Alas, too many community leaders stereotype Israel as the…
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