Opinion

• Opinion

  ‘From my archive to yours’: Meet Bob Cumins, photographer and Zelig of Jewish politics

  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. Back in September, my son handed me the envelope as soon…

  By Jodi Rudoren

  7 min read
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  Opinion

  What ketamine therapy taught me about my Jewish intergenerational trauma

  In July of 2021, I found myself in a Manhattan clinic wearing an eye mask and headphones, about to receive my fifth of six injections of therapeutic ketamine. “What’s your intention for this session?” asked my therapist, poised with a notebook to record the answer. “I’d like to encounter my ancestors or my guides,” I…

  By Lyssa Mandel Jan 28, 2022 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Why the backlash against Bari Weiss?

  Whether she wants the job or not, L.A. transplant Bari Weiss has become a go-to face of American Jewry. After her appearance last Friday on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” she faced a firestorm of criticism for her remarks about the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of it is from the cottage industry of Bari Weiss…

  By Rob Eshman Jan 28, 2022 | 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 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

  After Colleyville, we fight antisemitism by teaching about it

  A few years ago, a guest speaker made antisemitic statements on a panel at Princeton University, where I lead the Center for Jewish Life — Hillel. Alarmed by his comments that Israelis “are biped bloodhounds drinking the blood of one million [Palestinian] children,” I met with an administrator to discuss its impact on Jewish students….

  By Rabbi Julie Roth Jan 28, 2022 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  My cousin may have betrayed Anne Frank. What would I have done in his place?

  (JTA) — My entire adult life I have espoused and jettisoned multiple theologies and philosophies after subjecting them to the ultimate test: Would they survive Auschwitz? Sometimes yes, sometimes no, almost always with some kind of caveat. Now Auschwitz presents a new test much closer to home. This month, the subject of who betrayed Anne…

  By Jason van Leeuwen Jan 27, 2022 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  What it’s like to be a Jewish former NYPD cop in Texas

  When my friends ask me what it’s like to be a cop, I typically give them the standard “living the dream” line that most of us use — for me, it truly is a dream job. When my Jewish friends ask, I reply with a more niche answer. I tell them to imagine posting a…

  By Jacob Novikov Jan 27, 2022 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  In Ukraine, I was never allowed to forget that I was a Jew

  As told to Nora Berman; edited for length and clarity I find it offensive when people describe me as a Ukrainian Jew. I am Jewish, and I was born in Ukraine, yet I feel quite separate from the buildup of Russian troops on the eastern border and the threat of invasion. In Ukraine, I was…

  By Alex Stern Jan 25, 2022 | 6 min read
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  Letters

  We need a tenure system for American rabbis

  Prior to heroically initiating the escape of three congregants and himself from the Jan. 15, 2022 hostage siege in Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who had led the Reform temple for 15 years, was informed that his contract would not be renewed. In Oct. 2021, Rabbi Benjamin Goldschmidt, the assistant…

  By Ted Sheskin Jan 24, 2022 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m a rabbi and I helped my father end his life

  “Promise me you will help me die.” My father was 92 years old. He had congestive heart failure and COPD. He was living on oxygen and a dozen medications that had kept him alive since a debilitating stroke paralyzed him forty years ago. Last year, when his doctors told him that he was dying in…

  By Rabbi Rachel Timoner Jan 24, 2022 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘You’re running out of time’: Rabbi details calls with Texas terrorist

  This essay is adapted from the sermon that Rabbi Angela Buchdahl delivered Friday night at Central Synagogue in Manhattan. Buchdahl, Central’s senior rabbi, fielded two cellphone calls last Saturday from Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, where a British gunman had taken a rabbi and three congregants hostage. The gunman, Malik Faisal Akram, asked the…

  By Rabbi Angela Buchdahl Jan 22, 2022 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Texas synagogue attack makes the Republican block on antisemitism envoy more appalling

  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 a special edition of our free printable magazine devoted to Colleyville. I’m going to my synagogue for Kabbalat Shabbat services tonight for the first…

  By Jodi Rudoren Jan 21, 2022 | 6 min read