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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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.”
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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…
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Opinion Alex Edelman crashed a white supremacist meeting. It left him grappling with his own Jewish identity
Behind the scenes of 'Just for Us'
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Opinion I’m alone for the holidays at 78 — and looking forward to a whole new life
Alone for the holidays for the first time in my life. At 78 years old. I contemplated that painful reality. My mind wandered back to past holidays, and, as my spirits began to sink, I heard my cellphone chime. It was an invitation from the Alpert Jewish Community Center in Long Beach, California, where I…
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Opinion Hanukkah gnomes have exploded in popularity, despite deeply antisemitic origins
If you are a Jew living in the United States, you’re likely aware of Hanukkah’s slow creep toward becoming Jewish Christmas. There is Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf, ugly sweater sugar cookies, and Wayfair Santas wrapped in prayer shawls. This year, however, the latest Chrismukkah riff is … a Hanukkah gnome. Hanukkah gnomes are cute, and…
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Opinion The Nazis used us during the 1936 Olympics. We cannot fall for the same propaganda tactics in China
Editor’s Note: This article was written before President Biden’s decision to withhold U.S. diplomatic participation from the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Click here to read the author’s most recent analysis on this issue. In a recent telephone interview with Fox News, former President Donald Trump said he is opposed to a proposed boycott of the 2022…
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Opinion A religious minority faces a second genocide in Afghanistan. Jews must act now
Every year for Hanukkah, my mother would gift me a book about the Holocaust. Every vacation we took, even within the continental United States, my mother insisted we carry our US passports, just in case we needed to flee at a moment’s notice. Those books and passports served as reminders of my Jewish ancestry —…
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Opinion Toronto students walked out in support of Palestinian rights. The reality is more complex
On Friday, Nov. 12, 2021, some two hundred students at Marc Garneau Collegiate staged a walkout in support of Palestinian rights to show their solidarity with Desmond Cole, a Toronto anti-racism educator, and Javier Davila, a teacher in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Earlier this year, Davila was suspended (and then reinstated without discipline)…
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Sports First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
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Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
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Fast Forward Father and son suspects in Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack identified as Sajid and Naveed Akram by law enforcement
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Fast Forward Pennsylvania principal to be fired over antisemitic voicemail: ‘They control the banks’
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News Jews mobilized for Darfur 20 years ago. As violence surges again, where are they now?
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Culture Righteous gentiles in the Holocaust were no ‘ordinary thing’
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Letters My childhood echoes in newly released Shoah recordings
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