Opinion

• Opinion

  I survived being taken hostage in my Colleyville synagogue

  (JTA) — If I have learned anything over the past month, it is that racist tropes are not harmless words. They must be actively and consistently challenged. You know them and so do I. The racist tropes peddled about Jewish people are plentiful. What you may not know is that antisemitic tropes caused my friends…

  By Jeffrey R. Cohen

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Did George Washington really love the Jews?

  Everything you need to know about George Washington and the Jews

  By Richard Brookhiser Feb 21, 2022 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I hate this Presidents Day — and all others

  Presidents’ Day is just plain odd

  By Dan Friedman Feb 21, 2022 | 2 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 A new humanitarian outrage is unfolding in the Middle East. It’s not in Gaza

  

• Nora Berman The left is turning on AOC over Israel — and imperiling its own agenda

  

• Dan Perry Actually, Trump made things between Israel and Iran way worse

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  A Palestinian-American died in Israeli custody. American Jews help fund the unit responsible

  An 80 year-old Palestinian-American, Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, died cold and alone on Jan. 12, 2022. He died after being dragged from his vehicle, handcuffed, gagged and forced to lie on his stomach on frigid marble ground in below-freezing temperatures. Omar As’ad’s son told the Associated Press that his father was “the life of the party”…

  By Nora Berman Feb 18, 2022 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Wake the sleeping dogs! The Jewish world needs journalism without fear or favor

  This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. Download and print our free magazine of stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday. The letter is dated Feb. 16, 1904. It’s typewritten on yellowing…

  By Jodi Rudoren Feb 18, 2022 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m a queer Mizrahi Jew who left the NY Orthodox world. This ‘bubby’ took me in.

  (JTA) — This article first appeared on Alma. In Orthodox Judaism, a child’s Hebrew name is given within the first week. The rules for our lives are predetermined, assigned based on our gender at birth. Since I was born, I knew inside that I was created differently from others — and I was labeled a non-conforming…

  By Je'Jae Cleopatra Daniels Feb 16, 2022 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Israel thinks I only want to make aliyah so I can play basketball. But I just want to come home.

  (JTA) — Eight days after I was born, I had a brit. I was a Jew, and that’s what Jews do. Well, many do it anyway; Jews who are not observant may not, but that wasn’t my family. We kept Shabbat. We had the best meals and wine during Passover. And on Yom Kippur, at…

  By Jared Armstrong Feb 15, 2022 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  How I stay close to my son while arguing over Israel and Palestine

  As a progressive and pro-Israel mother of four teens, I’ve tried hard to instill in my children a balanced perspective on championing the challenged while supporting the world’s only Jewish state. But when my eldest son wants to discuss Israel-Palestine, we often descend into heated debate. Asher is a college sophomore and decidedly critical of…

  By Lynne Golodner Feb 15, 2022 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  We know what works in protecting synagogues. Now Congress needs to fund it

  Antisemitic incidents in America have been on the rise in recent years, and 2022 is already off to a terrible start: a gunman took four people hostage inside a Texas synagogue, Jews have been physically attacked in the streets of Brooklyn, and several synagogues and other Jewish organizations across the country have received bomb threats….

  By Nathan J. Diament Feb 14, 2022 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Germany denied my Holocaust survivor mother reparations — twice

  When I was 34, I discovered my mother was a Holocaust survivor. My parents finally put their hellish marriage out of its misery and called it quits. In the aftermath, I came across an affidavit in which my mother was claiming financial support. In it, she stated she was born into the Jewish faith. It…

  By Krystyna Lagowski Feb 14, 2022 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Difficult literature is more important than ever’: why we’re bringing Black plays to Jewish schools

  McMinn County in Tennessee recently banned their middle schools from reading Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus,” a work that for decades has powerfully introduced young readers to the realities of the Holocaust. Shortly thereafter, residents of nearby Mount Juliet held a mass book burning, during which they tossed copies of “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” into…

  By Kendell Pinkney & Lonnie Firestone Feb 14, 2022 | 5 min read