In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Letters Rabbi Charlie is a hero, and that’s all we need to know
Dear Jodi and the Forward Family: I am writing to express my disappointment in your story about Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker’s contract. In my opinion, it is a feeble attempt at a salacious and irrelevant angle to what was a moment of fright and ultimately, Jewish unity. Clergy people change jobs. Some often. They do so…
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Opinion I’m a pulpit rabbi. This is the true cost of keeping synagogues safe
In the aftermath of the hostage situation at a synagogue in Texas, every Jewish institution in America, no matter the size, is once again reckoning with the overwhelming financial, material and spiritual costs of keeping our communities safe in a country where weapons of mass murder are available off the shelf at Walmart. I’m a…
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Opinion Conspiracy theories are at the root of anti-Jewish violence
In the days that followed the hostage crisis at the Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, TX, reports came out about how the hostage-taker repeatedly espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories, believing that Jews could exert their power and sway over the U.S. government to free an imprisoned Al Qaeda terrorist. These revelations are likely surprising to many,…
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Opinion I have been racially profiled by the police. I still want them protecting our synagogues
Like millions of Jews, the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel affected me deeply. Even here in Canada, my concern was with the hostages, but I also dreaded the conversation of security would soon emerge. After every antisemitic attack on a synagogue, we have a communal conversation about increased security and armed guards at synagogues,…
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Opinion My husband survived the Tree of Life shooting. The Texas synagogue attack reopened our wounds
I found out that Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three others had been taken hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Tex. when many other observant Jews did: after the end of Shabbat. There was a knock on our door. It was someone from the 10.27 Healing Partnership, a grant-funded organization that provides resources and support…
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Opinion How many Jews have to die for our allies to acknowledge the antisemitism Jews face?
If the circumstances weren’t so terrifying, the mental gymnastics of the last few days could almost be considered comedic. FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew DeSarno described the nearly 11-hour hostage crisis that had unfolded at Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Colleyville, Tex. as “not specifically related to the Jewish community.” Even President…
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Opinion Can we make our synagogues secure without causing the vulnerable to suffer?
“I can see they’re good guys,” Malik Faisal Akram said of the rabbi and three congregants he held hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas. “They let me in, I said ‘is this a night shelter?’ and they let me in …” His words pierced me. Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, whose bravery empowered his congregants to…
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