Opinion

• Opinion

  I was arrested for a crime I didn’t commit. The Palestinians I work with suffer far worse

  A few weeks ago the police abruptly came to my house in Jerusalem on two different occasions. The first visit they paid was at 3:30 in the morning; six officers came and banged on the doors and windows until my four roommates and I woke up. My roommates and I were suspected of having drawn…

  By Oriel Eisner

  4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  I challenge you to find a typo in this column (and bet you’ll be able to)

  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. I was absolutely mortified two weeks ago when this column published…

  By Jodi Rudoren Dec 17, 2021 | 6 min read
• 
  Opinion

  American Jews — on the left and the right — got Trump’s Israel legacy all wrong

  The release of former President Donald Trump’s explosive interviews with Israeli journalist Barak Ravid and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s visit to the United Arab Emirates should comprise a wake-up call to American Jews: both Trump’s stalwart admirers and implacable foes are getting the story wrong. Trump’s achievements in the Middle East are far greater…

  By Ari Hoffman Dec 15, 2021 | 4 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 Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  Is the Christmas tree a religious symbol? What about a menorah?

  America in the midst of our holiday season — a time for family, rest and hotly contested litigation over religious displays on government property. For this year’s installment, we have a “tree lighting event” hosted by the Parent Teacher Association of the Carmel River Elementary School, a public school in Northern California. The event is…

  By Michael A. Helfand Dec 14, 2021 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Our preschool welcomed Santa — and exiled my Jewish daughter

  As told to Nora Berman; edited for length and clarity The phone lit up with an unexpected text message: it was from a staff member at my daughter’s preschool. I was confused as to why they would be texting now, when the entire class was supposed to be in the middle of their holiday party….

  By Meg Keene Dec 14, 2021 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  My Jewish ancestors owned slaves. That shameful knowledge fuels my rabbinic activism today

  (JTA) — In “The Social Justice Torah Commentary,” Rabbi Brian Stoller describes a turtle-shaped dinner bell that his great-grandmother used to summon a Black butler to attend to her needs at the family’s Shabbat table. When I got to that line while editing the volume, I felt a jolt of familiarity: An identical bell served…

  By Rabbi Barry H. Block Dec 9, 2021 | 4 min read
• 
  Opinion

  The Met is erasing the Sackler name. Tel Aviv University’s medical school should be next

  In a joint statement, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family today announced that the museum will no longer bear the name of the disgraced pharmaceutical billionaires who helped fuel the opioid crisis for financial gain. Yemach shemo, as we say in Jewish tradition — may their name, and all the pain that…

  By Nora Berman Dec 9, 2021 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  2022 Olympians have a chance to protest the Chinese Uyghur genocide — just like brave athletes did during the Nazi games in 1936

  President Biden’s decision to withhold U.S. diplomatic participation from the 2022 Beijing Olympics, while allowing athletes to take part, confronts America’s pole-vaulters and shot-putters with a familiar moral dilemma: Should sports and politics mix? It’s a shame that the president has decided to limit his response to Chinese human rights abuses to such a halfway…

  By Rafael Medoff Dec 7, 2021 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  WATCH: Can you do better than comedian Alex Edelman at ‘Yiddish or Gibberish’?

  On November 20th, comedian Alex Edelman paid a visit to the Forward’s Manhattan offices. We tested him on his Yiddish knowledge, learned about his unique bar mitzvah, and Alex teased his new solo show “Just For Us.”

  By Nora Berman Dec 7, 2021 | < 1 min read
• 
  Opinion

  ADL has 4 suggestions for Twitter’s new CEO on fighting antisemitism and hate speech

  Dear Parag, Congratulations on becoming Twitter’s new CEO. We at ADL have worked with Twitter for years and want to remind you of the explicit and repeated commitment that your company has made to keep hate off its platform. Twitter was once a cesspool of hate speech, keeping ADL analysts quite busy. Our reports on…

  By Jonathan A. Greenblatt Dec 6, 2021 | 3 min read
• 
  Opinion

  Alex Edelman crashed a white supremacist meeting. It left him grappling with his own Jewish identity

  Alex Edelman’s new solo show, “Just For Us,” opens with a re-enactment of a white supremacist meeting. As he describes the Queens apartment in which he attended a 2017 gathering of neo-Nazis, he gets the audience laughing at both white supremacist “civility” and at the fact that he ended up being more talkative than two-thirds…

  By Nora Berman Dec 6, 2021 | 5 min read