Opinion

• 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

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  Democrats swept Georgia, then a mob attacked the Capitol. Where do our politics turn now?

  If I told you 50 or even five years ago that Georgia’s two Senate seats would be held by a Jew and a Black man, you might have thought I was pitching a science fiction novel. And if I would have told you at the start of last week that the President would incite a…

  By Ari Hoffman Jan 10, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish institutions must show courage, and take a hard line on Trump’s enablers

  After Wednesday’s disgraceful assault on Capitol Hill, it is clear that there must be severe consequences for those who enabled and encouraged President Donald Trump’s big lie that the 2020 presidential election, which President-elect Joe Biden won, was stolen. Certainly, those who incited and participated in the insurrection must be prosecuted. But ensuring legal accountability…

  By Abe Silberstein Jan 10, 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 Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  ‘Nothing like this has ever happened before:’ Historians reflect on mob violence in Washington

  “It’s really tough for historians to assert a negative,” Eric Rauchway said. But, he added, there was “absolutely no precedent” for Wednesday’s armed insurrection by supporters of President Trump at the U.S. Capitol. Rauchway, a 20th century American political historian at the University of California at Davis, was one of five historians I spoke with…

  By Zachariah Sippy Jan 8, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘West Wing’ to Trump White House: Invoke the 25th Amendment

  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. Most of what I know about the 25th Amendment to the Constitution I learned from “The West Wing.” For those not as obsessed with the greatest…

  By Jodi Rudoren Jan 8, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Watching America in crisis, and dreading Trumpism’s global spread

  Watching the scenes of violence unfold in the United States Capitol on Wednesday from the United Kingdom was a surreal experience — but not an entirely shocking one. It was clear, four years ago, when Donald Trump became the President of the United States, that he had been elected on a ticket of hyper-polarization, white…

  By Nadine Batchelor-Hunt Jan 7, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Maybe now we’ll crack down on the alt-right

  No one should be shocked by what happened Wednesday in Washington. The mob that crashed into the Capitol building and carried the flaccid banners of white supremacy to the floor of the House did not suddenly start marching following President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. “If you’re at all surprised by what’s happening now,”…

  By Rob Eshman Jan 7, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  I voted for Trump, but I didn’t sign up for this

  For my children, Wednesday felt like any other day. I picked my 12-year-old up from his yeshiva at the same time a mob of President Trump’s supporters was making its way through the Capitol building. Wondering whether he knew what was going on, I asked him about it. He had an idea — he’d heard…

  By Eli Steinberg Jan 7, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Editorial | A dark day for democracy in America

  I got a text from a liberal Jewish friend on Wednesday morning that said, “Yay democracy today!” She was thrilled at the election of a black pastor and a Jewish documentarian to the United States Senate from the Deep South state of Georgia. But a day that dawned with such celebration will go down as…

  By Jodi Rudoren Jan 7, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  In these times of terror, may God continue to bless America

  I am watching an attempted coup while my daughter eats bagels and plays with my phone. She is getting frustrated, because the phone is buzzing off the hook, knocking off her episode of “Peppa Pig.” The messages come fast and furious. “Are you okay?” “Are our friends okay?” “Are you home?” “I am scared —…

  By Carly Pildis Jan 6, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump has nurtured far-right extremism at every turn. This is his fault.

  “Stand back and stand by.” When President Trump said those words to the far-right paramilitary group, the Proud Boys, at a presidential debate in September, I felt a terribly deep pit open in my stomach. I feared that Trump’s overt dog whistle to a right-wing paramilitary group — by no means the only time he…

  By Joel Swanson Jan 6, 2021 | 3 min read