In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
YU’s institutional silence harms all students — and I know change is possible
In many ways, I was an outsider at my elite boarding school: I was a Democrat, I was Jewish, and the wealth and conservatism of my peers were unlike anything I’d previously experienced. Yet there was something else that separated me from my classmates, which I kept private: I was bisexual. Our student handbook specifically…
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Opinion Three ways Jewish values are helping me embrace a healthier ‘new normal’
Like most people, I thought I would be happy to return to normal this summer. I was grateful to be gathering with family to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday in person. I enjoyed eating in restaurants again and making travel plans instead of sanitizing my groceries. But underneath that initial elation, as I stored my…
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Opinion I left my Hasidic community. ‘Schitt’s Creek’ helped me put things in perspective.
(JTA) — This article originally appeared on Alma. A year ago, I was watching “Schitt’s Creek” with my wife. It was the last season, second to last episode, so things were already emotional. Then there was that scene. The one where David is sitting on the car with his best friend Stevie and looking at…
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Opinion Ice cream and bourbon at America’s concentration camps
At the Belle Meade plantation in Nashville, Tenn., you can partake in a wine tasting of Gentleman’s Red or Lady’s Cuvée. You can play a round of cornhole. And at its Coop N’ Scoop ice cream shop, you have a choice of strawberry, chocolate or their newest flavor — Krazy Kookie Dough. But here’s a…
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Opinion I run the Jewish refugee agency. Our work in Afghanistan is nowhere close to done
This has been a tough week for all of us at HIAS, but it has been so much worse for the people of Afghanistan. My mind is occupied by the family members of the Afghans and the Americans who were killed at Karzai Airport today, and for the many people of Afghanistan whose lives are…
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Opinion Jordan has a public antisemitism problem. Why isn’t the U.S. holding them accountable?
It is wise that the U.S. and Israel are pursuing deeper relations with Jordan. But it is unacceptable to let the Kingdom’s tolerance for public antisemitism go unchallenged in the process. King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein was the first Mideast leader to be received as a visitor to the Biden White House, and Amman was…
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Opinion With these 3 moves, Bennett can begin repairing the U.S.-Israel relationship
When President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meet today at the White House, they will have an opportunity to start undoing twelve years of damage and setbacks to the U.S.-Israel alliance. Although major policy disagreements will not evaporate overnight, the gnawing crisis of confidence that has beset the relationship can be quickly overcome….
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Opinion 10 ways Jewish Americans can help Afghan refugees
The scenes from Afghanistan seem too dire to overcome. But there are things each of us can do right now that can make a major impact. The United States currently works with nine refugee resettlement agencies to assist those fleeing persecution abroad. HIAS, originally the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, is one of them — and…
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Opinion The lesson we should learn from Afghanistan
The disaster unfolding in Afghanistan is a tragedy we’ve seen before. Images of Afghans falling from airplanes and streaming into terminals, desperate to leave, evoke past scenes of collapse: Saigon at the end of Vietnam, the airlifts of Ethiopians from Israel and the desperate efforts of Jews and others to flee Europe as governments fell…
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Opinion Delays were deadly during the Holocaust. We cannot repeat the same mistakes in Afghanistan
As the Taliban entered Kabul, one former translator for the U.S. military felt she was living through a horror movie. “Nobody wants to leave their home because they don’t know if they’ll make it back alive,” she told me via WhatsApp on Wednesday. “The past 20 years feel like a dream. Overnight everything has changed.”…
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Opinion The missing voices of Black Jews in the Crown Heights tragedy
Akedah Fulcher-Eze grew up in a Black and Orthodox Jewish family in the Brooklyn, New York neighborhood of Crown Heights and lived there during the violence of Aug. 19-21, 1991. Her family was well known to both Black and Jewish residents, and they were not alone, she says; the neighborhood was home to about a…
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Opinion The ‘Hymietown’ affair degraded Black-Jewish relations. Jesse Jackson wasn’t the real culprit
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Opinion The ‘Hymietown’ affair degraded Black-Jewish relations. Jesse Jackson wasn’t the real culprit
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Fast Forward Robin Kelly, running for Senate in Illinois, says Israel committed ‘genocide’
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Fast Forward Isaiah Zagar, renowned Jewish mosaic artist who created Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, dies at 86
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Fast Forward South Africa pulls out of Venice Biennale — because its selected artist wanted to focus on Gaza
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