Opinion

• Opinion

  Spending time with unhoused people challenged everything I knew about Sukkot

  Sukkot is one of the most beautiful and uplifting holidays on the Jewish calendar. As a young child, I was often taught that we leave our homes and spend time in our sukkot to remind us of the days when the Israelites were unhoused and wandering in the desert, on their way to redemption. The…

  By Hannah Lebovits

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m a leftist. Progressives’ move to strip Iron Dome from spending bill smacks of ignorance

  The first time I sprinted to a bomb shelter, it was a stairwell in a rental-car agency in Tel Aviv, Israel. The siren blared as my then-Burning Man fling (now husband) and I were finalizing the paperwork. He grabbed my hand and shoved me into the stairwell along with several employees. Ten seconds later, there…

  By Nora Berman Sep 22, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What rain in the sukkah can teach us about resilience

  A feeling of “this is not how it was supposed to be” permeates our sukkah this year. Sukkot is supposed to be a time of abundance, but this Sukkot seems to be, instead, a time of grave concern. Like rain penetrating the sukkah, the suffering around us makes us uncomfortable. When it rains we find…

  By Morey Schwartz Sep 20, 2021 | 3 min read

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• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• 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

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  Opinion

  Surviving an assassination attempt gave me a new appreciation for the High Holidays

  Last year, I celebrated Rosh Hashanah services on Mount Lemmon, a small mountain that overlooks my home in Tucson, Ariz. We started doing this during the pandemic for safety reasons, but I hope we’ll continue to do it in years to come. On Mount Lemmon, I look out over the desert landscape. I listen to…

  By Gabrielle Giffords Sep 15, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Should you text your ex before Yom Kippur?

  It’s traditional to reach out and apologize to those we have hurt before Yom Kippur to ask for forgiveness. Does that extend to your ex? Few relationships are as inherently intimate or emotional or painful as our romantic ones. While friendships run deep — and I think we would all be better off if we…

  By Shira Telushkin Sep 15, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  I won’t let divorce kill my Shabbat

  One Friday last winter when my boys were at their father’s house, I worked late at home, still in my pajamas. On the nights I don’t have my kids, I tend to heat up soup or pour myself a bowl of cereal for supper. (Less depressing than it sounds, I swear.) But on this Friday,…

  By Hanna Ingber Sep 13, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Observing Yom Kippur on the street — and remembering those lost to violence

  This week, Jews around the world will observe the second Yom Kippur of the Covid era. Despite the uncertainty of the never-ending pandemic, it remains a time for taking stock of the year that was and holding out hope for better times ahead. For far too many, 5781 was a year defined by too many…

  By Tamar Manasseh Sep 11, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I served in Afghanistan as an Army chaplain. Jewish wisdom can help us process what comes after withdrawal

  When the US was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, I was the same age as the current cadets at West Point are now. After graduating from college, I assumed I would leave the dangers of Afghanistan to our military and focus on studying for the Jewish clergy. Growing up on the Upper East Side, Judaism…

  By David P. Frommer Sep 10, 2021 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  I was the NYPD’s only Jewish chaplain at ground zero. Here’s what I learned on 9/11

  The NYPD's only Jewish chaplain recalls the sights and sounds of 9/11

  By Alvin Kass Sep 9, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  I was RBG’s rabbi. Her legacy demands we fight for human dignity and reproductive rights.

  Grief is a complicated animal. I have often described its presence to my congregants as a mountain — sometimes it is across from you and you can see it, sometimes you are climbing it, sometimes you have summited it and sometimes it is just right on top of you. We do not control it, we…

  By Lauren Holtzblatt Sep 3, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Our hate crime reporting system is broken

  In the first hours of 2020, I called the NYPD to confirm that a Jewish 15 year-old had been held up at knifepoint on a public bus. “Wow. There’s a lot of this stuff happening. What the hell,” was the officer’s response. He confirmed the incident, and told me I had missed another: in South…

  By Laura E. Adkins Sep 2, 2021 | 6 min read