Opinion

• Opinion

  The world faces new antisemitic threats, and Biden must adopt new tools to fight them

  As seditionists attacked our Capitol building with antisemitic symbols adorned to their tactical vests, emblazoned on their shirts and scrawled on flags they waved, America witnessed the latest results of a growing global crisis of antisemitism our nation can no longer afford to ignore. In the past five years, we have observed a dramatic change…

  By Sharon Nazarian

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump has not done teshuva — so the Senate must convict him

  Even for those of us whose hearts are hardened and who have tragically come to expect a certain degree of political violence in our system, the video was still hard to watch. Footage shown for the first time this week during the second impeachment trial of former President Trump reveals just how close the events…

  By Joel Swanson Feb 13, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | Marjorie Taylor Greene isn’t an excuse to minimize Ilhan Omar’s rhetoric

  Editor: The Jewish Democratic Council of America’s CEO, Haile Soifer, in these pages, attempted to minimize Ilhan Omar’s antisemitism. Soifer’s op-ed, “Don’t Compare antisemitism on the left and right. Marjorie Taylor Greene proves it’s not the same” is a classic case of left-wing revisionism. Soifer suggests that the only moment of note when Omar expressed…

  By Richard Sherman Feb 12, 2021 | < 1 min read

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• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  How Springsteen’s Super Bowl ad and David Schoen’s yarmulke are connected

  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 I spent a lot of this…

  By Jodi Rudoren Feb 12, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Is the Jewish deli the new synagogue?

  (New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Are sociologists and communal leaders looking for American Judaism in all the wrong places? Rachel B. Gross argues that too many community studies and their authors see Judaism in decline because they measure synagogue attendance, ritual observance and other traditional behaviors and “fail to see it flourishing in…

  By Andrew Silow-Carroll Feb 12, 2021 | 9 min read
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  Opinion

  The pandemic has devastated restaurants. Surprisingly, most kosher ones have weathered the storm — and I’m optimistic about the future.

  (JTA) — Many industries were harmed in 2020, perhaps none as deeply as the hospitality sector. Nearly one in six U.S. restaurants had closed as of December, according to data from the National Restaurant Association. Kosher establishments were not immune to the economic consequences of the pandemic: We saw iconic kosher restaurants permanently close this…

  By Dani Klein Feb 12, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why it’s good that Biden’s foreign policy picks are controversial on Israel

  Of the many Democratic candidates who sought their party’s nomination for president in 2020, Joe Biden was perhaps the one who least worried pro-Israel stalwarts. Aside from his clash with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, accounts of which are likely embellished, Biden’s long political record is one of friendship and understanding with the Jewish state….

  By Abe Silberstein Feb 12, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s time for white Jews to get over Sammy Davis Jr.

  When I was growing up, I thought that I was related to Sammy Davis Jr. Whenever people would find out I was Jewish they would instantly ask, “Like Sammy Davis Jr.?” It was as if he was the only Black Jew in the world — besides me, of course. Yet we had nothing in common…

  By Tamar Manasseh Feb 11, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Bruce Springsteen’s Super Bowl ad offered a powerful vision of American unity — for Christians

  (JTA) — The two-minute advertisement, for Jeep, appeared late in Sunday’s Super Bowl. “The Middle,” narrated by Bruce Springsteen, is a meditation on the theme of national unity. In the wake of President Biden’s call to honor unity, bipartisanship and civility, the words should have been compelling: “The middle has been a hard place to…

  By Jeremy Burton Feb 10, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Myanmar coup puts genocide victims in new peril. We must not sit by.

  The military coup in Myanmar on Sunday was shocking but hardly surprising. After generals seized a democratically-elected leader and troops cut off telecommunications, we must ask: How can we protect Myanmar’s most vulnerable, who are already suffering a genocide? The Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw, seized power following a decade-long experiment in democracy. Although…

  By Serena Oberstein Feb 9, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re running out of time to preserve endangered Jewish languages. Here’s how we can stop them from being lost forever.

  (JTA) — I can’t stop thinking about Flory Jagoda, Joseph Sassoon and Kitty Sassoon – three American Jews in their 90s who died last week. As an Ashkenazi Jew, I do not share their family backgrounds. But their deaths hit home for me, as they were among the last native speakers of endangered Jewish languages…

  By Sarah Bunin Benor Feb 8, 2021 | 3 min read