Opinion

• Opinion

  This Passover, I’m contemplating the plague of ageism

  I used to think old peo­ple were either cute or sad. The cute ones were Kirk Dou­glas or Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg doing push-ups, and gray-haired cou­ples ani­mat­ed­ly talk­ing to each oth­er or walk­ing hand in hand in the park. The sad ones were stooped, infirm, inept, crotch­ety, disheveled, occa­sion­al­ly inco­her­ent, and most­ly invis­i­ble. I used…

  By Letty Cottin Pogrebin

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  I reached out to the woman behind that viral Christian Seder. She deserves compassion.

  Last year, one of my Christian friends posted an infuriating picture of her Passover Seder on Instagram. Her table was set immaculately and looked light-years better than mine. That’s why it was offensive: she had the chutzpah to do it better. In her post, she made it clear that she was celebrating Passover as a…

  By Bethany Mandel Apr 1, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s hard to connect to the Torah as a trans Jew. I’m trying anyway.

  This essay originally appeared on Alma, 70 Faces Media’s feminist Jewish culture site. Had you asked me 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even last year (truthfully, last month) if I’d ever quote the Torah in a piece I was writing, I probably would have (respectfully and nervously) laughed in your face. The Torah makes…

  By Dubbs Weinblatt Apr 1, 2021 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman If war with Iran goes badly for the U.S., Jews will be the scapegoat

  

• Nora Berman Zohran Mamdani is right about what ‘intifada’ means — well, kind of

  

• Dan Perry The US and Israel could seek to topple Iran’s regime. They should choose negotiation instead

  

• Emily Tamkin Israeli leaders are using Holocaust comparisons to justify attacks on Iran. Is that kosher?

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  When it comes to race, American Jews must do a better job pursuing justice

  Last month, the House of Representatives passed the The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a law designed to transform the way law enforcement interacts with Black communities nationwide. Especially as the trial of George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin, gets underway this week, it’s an important step to ending police abuses of Black people, and…

  By Tamar Manasseh Mar 31, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jews must stop letting the right smear Kristen Clarke as antisemitic — she’s the leader we need

  This month, the Union for Reform Judaism — which represents some 850 congregations of the largest Jewish denomination in America — decided to endorse a presidential cabinet nomination for the first time, ever. The nominee: Kristen Clarke, who has been selected by President Joe Biden to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. To…

  By Michael Adam Latz Mar 30, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  States’ attempts to roll back voting rights betray American values — and Jewish ones

  The sweeping law that Georgia’s legislature passed on Thursday to restrict voting rights — part of a proliferation of such efforts Republicans are pushing in statehouses across the country — is shameful. I always thought it was tragic that comparatively few American citizens took seriously their right to vote. Now, rather than celebrating after the…

  By Daniel Isaak Mar 26, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Entering Passover under the plague of vaccine guilt

  As I unpack my Passover dishes and prepare to host a Seder that includes my aging parents — an enormous luxury compared to last year’s Zoom-only reality at the start of the pandemic — I find myself facing waves of an unfamiliar feeling. Vaccine guilt: That’s the guilt you get when you’re vaccinated and other…

  By Ilene Prusher Mar 26, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | Talk of Tikun Olam is replacing real Judaism

  To the editor: In her op-ed, found in these pages, Abby Seitz astonishingly asserted that the Arab Joint-List was the party that best reflected her Jewish values. She claimed that her rabbis and educators stress our people’s supposed longstanding commitment to Tikkun Olam, “repairing the world.” But in Judaism, Jews are tasked with adhering to…

  By Julia Lutch Mar 25, 2021 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Meet the Israeli Reform rabbi who just made history getting elected to Knesset

  This is an adaptation of our weekly Shabbat newsletter, sent by our editor-in-chief on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forward’s free newsletters delivered to your inbox. And click here for a PDF of stories to savor over Shabbat and Sunday that you can download and print. It’s pretty difficult not to be…

  By Jodi Rudoren Mar 25, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  A new declaration aims to fight antisemitism without curtailing free speech

  Antisemitism is on the rise, with powerful instigators behind it, but the struggle against it is at risk of being derailed by acrimonious divisions among Jews and others over its very meaning. The drive for adoption of a single, fixed definition of antisemitism has devolved into a polemical political debate on Israel and Palestine with…

  By Elissa Bemporad & Alon Confino & Derek Penslar Mar 25, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  This year, I learned the pain and beauty of praying outside

  This essay originally appeared in the New York Jewish Week. Friday night. We are standing in a paved plaza beside Riverside Drive; the air is crisp, the fresh snow is sparkling like diamond dust in the setting sun. We are 6 feet apart and masked (I can’t wait for this combined phrase to become obsolete)….

  By Esther Sperber Mar 24, 2021 | 3 min read