Opinion

• Opinion

  How to revive the Black-Jewish alliance? Remember all politics is local.

  As the country reels from the assault on the Capitol, Georgia’s election of two Democratic senators — one Black, one Jewish — is creating waves of nostalgia for a more hopeful, optimistic time. “I think Abraham Joshua Heschel, the rabbi who said, when he marched with Dr. King, he felt like his legs were praying,…

  By Jonathan Kaufman

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m a black rabbi. I’ve never been in a Jewish space where I wasn’t questioned.

  Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in June, 2020. I converted to Judaism because I fell in love with Judaism. I also naively believed that once I converted to Judaism,…

  By Sandra Lawson Jan 17, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Anti-Semitism – And Racism – Are Forcing Me To Choose Between My Black And Jewish Identities

  Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in May, 2019. On a recent late night run to a chicken shack in my neighborhood on the Southside of Chicago, I felt real…

  By Tamar Manasseh Jan 17, 2021 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson Mamdani’s victory is an opportunity for Jews to relearn the art of disagreement

  

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

  

• Nora Berman Did Netanyahu coerce Trump into attacking Iran? No — but he tried with Obama

  

• Dan Perry For Trump and Netanyahu, statecraft is now synonymous with stagecraft

  

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

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Can Jews and African Americans rebuild their 1960s alliance?

  Editor’s note: In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Forward is resurfacing some of our recent coverage related to the Black-Jewish experience and racial justice. This article originally appeared in June, 2020. Month after month in the early 1960s, demonstrators poured into the streets of Birmingham and Montgomery, of Jacksonville, Florida and Jackson,…

  By Jonathan Kaufman Jan 17, 2021 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  As president, Biden must leave the delusional Oslo Accords behind

  2020 was a breakthrough year for Middle Eastern peace. The Abraham Accords have warmed relations between Israel and a number of Muslim majority nations, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sudan, Bahrain and Morocco. For too long American, Israeli, and international leaders indulged Palestinian demands without insisting on much from their leaders, swallowing the propaganda…

  By Gil Troy and Natan Sharansky Jan 14, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Sheldon Adelson is gone. Soon his favorite political projects will be, too.

  Sheldon Adelson, the self-made casino billionaire and leading political donor to right-wing political causes in both the United States and Israel, passed away this week at the age of 87. Reactions to the loss of one of the leading Jewish political donors came swiftly, with political allies such as Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu hailing…

  By Joel Swanson Jan 13, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  To understand Sheldon Adelson’s mark on the world, look to George Soros

  When a generation begins or ends often clicks into focus only in retrospect. Even so, the passing of Sheldon Adelson at the age of 87 clearly marks the end of a chapter. He was a casino mogul who made big bets on Republican politics in the United States and Bibi Netanyahu in Israel, as well…

  By Ari Hoffman Jan 13, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘No more violence:’ Jewish activists react to Trump’s last-minute execution spree

  On the first night of Hanukkah, Terry Fear was protesting outside the federal death chamber in Terre Haute, Ind., during the execution of Brandon Bernard. The flickering candles of her hanukkiah provided light for her vigil. Last year, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of Justice (DOJ) killed 10 people, ending the federal…

  By Zachariah Sippy Jan 13, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jon Ossoff’s victory is momentous for patrilineal Jews

  Senator-elect Jon Ossoff’s opponent in his contentious recent Senate race, former Senator David Perdue, ran ads that digitally lengthened Ossoff’s nose and painted him with age-old antisemitic tropes: the socialist, the globalist, the media-controlling journalist. Perdue saw Ossoff’s Jewishness as a liability. Ossoff’s supporters saw it as something to be celebrated. Something no one pointed…

  By Zoe Katz Jan 12, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  My Georgia Jewish family lived in the KKK’s shadow. The Warnock-Ossoff victory is a miracle.

  “It was good,” I told my mother. “But they threw pennies at my feet?” I was 7 years old, and she had asked about my first day of school in Atlanta. It was 1987. I didn’t understand what being a Jew had to do with pennies, or why children would throw them at me. That’s…

  By Jenna Ben-Yehuda Jan 11, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re an Orthodox Jew and evangelical Christian, and we saw the attack on the Capitol coming

  We’re an Orthodox Jew and evangelical Christian. And while we were devastated and infuriated by Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, we weren’t surprised. We first met in Ohio in 2019, after conversing on Twitter. Immediately, we were struck by how similar our experiences of the last few years had been. We had…

  By Hannah Lebovits and Beth Piwkowski Jan 10, 2021 | 5 min read