Opinion

• 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

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘It was always going to end this way:’ Capitol coup is work of one man

  On January 6, 2021 a coup was staged in the United States of America. Some will say that the coup began months before, when President Trump refused to accept the legitimacy of an election he lost. For a while, the coup was dressed in respectable clothes, masquerading as lawsuits and appeals and writs of certiorari…

  By Ari Hoffman Jan 6, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Political concession is a Jewish value — we know abandoning it can be deadly

  President Trump is not a man inclined to graciously accept political defeat. Of course, we knew that long before this past weekend. But on Sunday, the Washington Post published the audio and transcript of an extraordinary phone call between President Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which Trump baldly asked Raffensperger to…

  By Joel Swanson Jan 6, 2021 | 4 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 Pro-Palestinian protesters are suddenly supporting Iran. They might want to talk to some Palestinians

  

• 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

  Don’t buy Georgia Republicans’ Israel sanctimony — they’re eroding democracy

  Criticizing Israel has, for a long time, been tantamount to treason to the Jewish far-right. Georgia Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock took heat in the media this week for his pro-Israel record, which has included criticism of the country’s treatment of Palestinians. So did his fellow Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff, who is Jewish. Both men,…

  By Matthew Matilsky Jan 5, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  A Georgia senate race phonebanker’s most important call

  I called Emily a week ago. All I knew about her was that she was 29 years old. She answered the phone in a delightful Southern accent. I asked if she was planning to vote for the Democratic candidates, Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff. “No, sir,” she said, “I’m voting for Perdue.” Bingo, I…

  By Adi Eshman Jan 4, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Georgia Jews: Vote Republican

  It’s rare to vote for U.S. Senate races knowing who holds the other 98 seats, but that’s where Georgians find themselves facing down a run-off election. And fellow Jews, if you’re still undecided, it’s time to vote strategically. With Joe Biden heading to the White House and Democrats narrowly controlling the House, a Republican-controlled Senate…

  By Melissa Langsam Braunstein Jan 4, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The bias of anti-bias training

  Recently I attended an anti-bias session hosted by my child’s elementary school in Los Angeles, a diverse private school with a long history of churning out kids who are kind, compassionate, and tolerant. The woman who led the session describes herself as an “anti-bias anti-racist educator and consultant,” but the session was less an instruction…

  By Monica Osborne Dec 31, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  As a Latin American Jew, I’m hesitant to write off Israel

  For Jews outside the United States, Israel is often the only place to develop a secular Jewish identity.

  By Martin Saps Dec 28, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Debate | Hero or villain? What is Jared Kushner’s legacy?

  We are now weeks away from the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The end of the Trump era is nigh. Perhaps other than President Trump himself, there has been no figure more important in the White House than his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner has played many roles as Trump’s right…

  By Ari Hoffman and Joel Swanson Dec 28, 2020 | 9 min read
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  Opinion

  Talk of Jews benefiting from ‘white supremacy’ is bad for fighting it

  Have American Jews “reinforced elements of white supremacy in their own lived experience?” This question was raised by historian Marc Dollinger in the preface he wrote for a fourth printing of his book on Black-Jewish relations. The book’s publisher, Brandeis University Press, found Dollinger’s connection of “white supremacy” to Jewish-American upward mobility problematic, and their…

  By Guila Franklin Siegel Dec 24, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | Brandeis University Press is fully committed to open debate

  Read the letter from the professors objecting to Brandeis University Press’s handling of Marc Dollinger’s book here. Dear Professors Berman, Goldstein, Greenberg, Kelman, Magid, Michels, Moore, Prell and Wenger, Thank you for your thoughtful letter written in the spirit of guaranteeing academic freedom, which we agree must be an inviolable principle for an academic press….

  By Sue Berger Ramin and Sylvia Fuks Fried Dec 23, 2020 | < 1 min read