Opinion

• Opinion

  What will history make of Andrew Cuomo?

  When the city was laid low and he was riding high, Andrew Cuomo’s daily press conferences were essential viewing. Their style was somehow both low-res and hi-def, the janky PowerPoints and abandoned recreation room setting making us feel as if we were all in the same absurdist bunker. Sure, he didn’t have the same charisma…

  By Ari Hoffman

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Asian Jews are suffering. We need you to listen.

  A version of this essay originally appeared on Alma, 70 Faces Media’s feminist Jewish culture site. Over the years, I’ve dealt with a lot of reactions to the fact that I am Korean and Jewish. They’ve ranged from the absurd (Are you sure?) to the angry (That’s not possible!) to the utterly exhausting (Wow, so, are…

  By Rebecca Kuss / JTA Mar 18, 2021 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Can we bend the boundaries of Shabbat without breaking them?

  Never did I imagine, before the pandemic hit a year ago that the Shabbat services I lead would become such a multimedia production. The cameras, the lighting, the monitors, Zoom, livestream, YouTube, Facebook, and most of all, the technicians who work behind the scenes to make it all happen. I am so incredibly proud of…

  By Elliot Cosgrove Mar 18, 2021 | 5 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

  What Jews should learn from the Amanda Gorman translation controversy

  Joe Biden’s inauguration was supposed to be a relatively subdued affair, transpiring as it did during a raging pandemic and the aftermath of a violent insurrection at the Capitol. The much-vaunted peaceful transfer of power was less a victory lap than a survivors’ huddle. There were no balls, no galas. Against this backdrop of grey…

  By Ari Hoffman Mar 17, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m a Jewish teen exhausted by violence, and I can’t keep waiting for adults to fix it

  When the Capitol was being stormed by insurrectionists, I was at home doing virtual high school and worrying about a tough history essay that I was writing. As a teenager growing up in Washington, D.C. — I live about a 30-minute walk from the Capitol — the attack felt very personal and close to home,…

  By Zachary Singerman Mar 16, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Israeli Arab life has gotten better — why aren’t we celebrating?

  The mayor of Nazareth, the largest Arab town in Israel, announced on Feb. 11 that he was backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel’s March 23 election. Outside of Israel, this landmark development was only sparsely reported on in American media. In a Reuters’ article that highlighted Netanyahu’s anti-Arab history, Arab leaders disparaged the mayor,…

  By Robert Cherry Mar 13, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | No, international law doesn’t require Israel to vaccinate Palestinians

  To the editors: I write in response to an op-ed written by Sari Bashi in The Forward titled “Yes, Israel Should Vaccinate all Palestinians. Here’s Why.” Her op-ed creates a false impression that Israel is not vaccinating Palestinians, and appears during a time when antisemites around the world are propagating blood libels about Jews and…

  By Larry D. Weiss Mar 12, 2021 | 2 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | Why haven’t the U.N. and Jordan stepped up to vaccinate Palestinians?

  To the editors, I do not criticize you for publishing an op-ed advocating and pushing Israel to step up and help vaccinate the Palestinians on the West Bank. (“Yes, Israel should vaccinate all Palestinians. Here’s why.”) After all, who else would care to? The assumption that Israel should vaccinate Palestinians is based solely on the…

  By Toby Stuart Mar 12, 2021 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  A Jewish thing happened on the way to our NYC mayoral forum

  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. Andrew Yang had a “Jewish gentleman”…

  By Jodi Rudoren Mar 12, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why are the Ultra-Orthodox treated like extremists when we vote?

  Finally! The Ultra-Orthodox bloc has been defeated! Well, no one put it quite that way — at least not publicly — in January, when a lawsuit brought by the NAACP in the upstate community of East Ramapo was successful, and federal appeals court ruled that the voting method that had elected a majority Orthodox Jewish…

  Mar 11, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | Actually, the PA turned down Israeli help with vaccinations

  To the editors, The Forward published an op-ed by Sari Bashi, a lawyer and research director at an Arab advocacy organization, that ignored reality while expounding the reasons why Israel should vaccinate all Palestinians. (“Yes, Israel should vaccinate all Palestinians. Here’s why.”) Her claim is based on the Geneva Convention’s Law of Occupation, which requires…

  By Conrad Nadell Mar 11, 2021 | < 1 min read