Opinion

• 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,…

  3 min read
• 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…

  Jan 24, 2003 | 2 min read
• 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…

  By Larry Cohler-Esses Jan 24, 2003 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz Class assignment: Get to know your murdered Jewish neighbors

  

• Rob Eshman Liberal Zionists are under attack. A new book proves their work has never been more important

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s most dangerous war is with itself

  

• Emily Tamkin American Jews have a Hasan Piker problem. Solving it is going to hurt

  

• Jay Michaelson Epstein and Iran are an antisemitism mega-crisis. Here’s what Jewish organizations should do about it. 

  

The Latest

• Opinion

  Potent, But Not Omnipotent

  Back in September, the White House released a document entitled, rather pompously, “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America.” Much of the discussion that then followed focused on the document’s explicit endorsement of preemptive action: “The greater the threat, the greater the risk of inaction — and the more compelling the case…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 17, 2003 | 4 min read
• Opinion

  Moving Right

  It was, perhaps, inevitable. American Jews, known worldwide for their indomitable liberalism, have begun moving to the right. That’s the finding of a new survey appearing on our front page, conducted by Steven M. Cohen, the dean of American Jewish opinion research. The shift is only in its incipient stages, reflected mainly in declining Democratic…

  Jan 17, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  Human Rights Dodge

  Human Rights Watch, the New York-based watchdog group, released its annual World Report this week, and it makes for a grim read. Reviewing conditions in 58 countries around the globe, the 558-page report is a litany of dictatorships that torture dissenters, use rape and mutilation as political strategies and murder their own citizens by the…

  Jan 17, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  All of Israel Responsible for One Another’s Children

  When I first hear about any terrorist tragedy, whether here in Israel or elsewhere in the world, my mind races from the victims who lost their lives to the secondary victims — the children, the children who lost and continue to lose parents and siblings and best friends and their innocence. I also fear for…

  By Drora Karniel Jan 17, 2003 | 3 min read
• Letters

  January 17, 2003

  Know Law of the Land Before Advising Israel The strategic advice the editorialist offers the government of Israel seems remarkably unencumbered by the sad facts of the last two-and-a-half years (“The Tin Badge II,” January 3). Contrary to the Forward’s assertion, Israel has not “insisted on remaining in control of the territories.” Furthermore, the pressure…

  Jan 17, 2003 | 5 min read
• Opinion

  King’s Spiritual Activism

  There appear to be two kinds of faith these days in America. The first, fundamentalism, promotes coerciveness and exclusivity, encouraging polarization, impenetrable boundaries and a deep suspicion of the other. The second, a type of New Age spirituality, is largely self-concerned, mainly focusing on the individual and his or her feelings and well-being. Dr. Martin…

  By Rabbi Brad Hirschfield and Irwin Kula Jan 17, 2003 | 2 min read
• Opinion

  Tend to Our Garden

  Tu B’Shvat, which we observe this Saturday, challenges us to think seriously about how we might apply authentic Jewish values to the ecological challenges confronting our planet. Sadly, some Jews are not involved in this enterprise, even though they observe the traditions, for they identify environmentalism with nonreligious, even anti-religious, elements and instinctively reject them….

  By Daniel Sperber Jan 17, 2003 | 3 min read
• Opinion

  At Home With Exile

  Israel proclaims itself the center of the Jewish world, the source of Jewish loyalty and inspiration. Even those of us who not only dwell in the Diaspora but who are in some real sense Diasporists — people who find Jewish meaning and potential in our dispersion — are for the most part prepared to acknowledge…

  By Leonard Fein Jan 10, 2003 | 4 min read