Opinion

• Opinion

  Q & A | Black, deaf, and Jewish filmmaker Eli Steele is challenging how we view race

  Eli Steele’s great-grandfather on his father’s side was born into American slavery. His grandmother on his mother’s side escaped the Nazis, then went back and rescued her entire family. His father is Shelby Steele, the famous Black conservative and author of “The Content of our Character,” a book that got him cancelled back in the…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon

  10 min read
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  Opinion

  Frustrating but indispensable, Saeb Erekat was like the peace process: heroic.

  On Tuesday we learned of the passing of Saeb Erekat, a chief Palestinian negotiator, who succumbed to complications due to Covid in a Jerusalem hospital. For 30 years, since the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991, Erekat was a cornerstone of the peace process, a main pillar of any efforts to end the conflict. To most…

  By Muhammad Shehada Nov 10, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Introducing Muslim Zionism

  We are a Jewish Zionist, an Arab Zionist and a Muslim Zionist. It is time to dispense with the idea that to be a proud Arab and Muslim one must be an anti-Zionist. For too long, anti-Zionism was pursued as an essential element of the correct Arab and Muslim identity. This has not brought the…

  By Einat Wilf, and Ibrahim Al Rashidi, and Maryam AlZaabi Nov 10, 2020 | 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 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

  Biden’s living in the past. That’s a good thing.

  In an America supposedly polarized to the point of overwrought civil war references, President-Elect Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is terribly out of sync. Throughout the primary and general campaigns and through Saturday’s night victory speech, the former two-term Vice President and 36-year veteran of the U.S. Senate spoke of restoring bipartisanship and civility. “To make…

  By Abe Silberstein Nov 10, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Biden the Biblical: Sacred echoes of our new president’s past

  The race to the White House between President Trump and Joe Biden has finally reached its conclusion with a Biden victory. This race was not about policy, though. It was about character, and Biden’s victory represents the triumph of decency over its opposite. But there’s another aspect of Biden’s personal story that hasn’t been as…

  By Andy Bachman Nov 10, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  5 major (progressive) Trump achievements for Biden to build on

  One of the surprises of the 2020 election was seeing President Trump, a man demonized as the embodiment of America’s enduring white supremacy, double his support among Black men. The man who promised a Muslim immigration ban also made inroads with Muslims, getting as much as 35% of their votes, according to some exit polls….

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Nov 9, 2020 | 7 min read
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  Opinion

  Joe Biden must lead in Jonathan Sacks’ spirit

  Some days the news moves so quickly that time seems to slow down. Saturday was one such day, with news networks finally calling the Presidential race for Joe Biden after days of waiting. Delirium ensued in major U.S. cities, along with denial in the White House. But there was another update that felt like a…

  By Ari Hoffman Nov 9, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Editorial | Biden’s victory is good for all Jews

  The most important thing Joe Biden said or did during this campaign was talk about what got him into it: Charlottesville. “It was a wake-up call for us as a country,” Biden said as he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination this summer, as well as a personal call to action. “My father taught us that…

  By Jodi Rudoren Nov 7, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The real election lesson for Jews: American and Israeli Jews are no longer one people

  There’s a number that sums up the yawning and growing gap dividing American and Israeli Jews right now. That number is 77. That’s the percentage of American Jewish voters who chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump in this week’s election, according to a preliminary exit poll from J Street. Coincidentally, the number 77 pops up…

  By Joel Swanson Nov 6, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Hey, we’re less divided than everyone else — and your weekend reads

  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 to download and print a PDF of Your Weekend Reads. So many words have been written this week, some of them by me,…

  By Jodi Rudoren Nov 6, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The center is winning. That’s a good thing.

  Election 2020 is in no rush, but all nerve-wracking things must eventually come to an end. Appropriately enough for Scranton’s favorite son, word has gone out from Pennsylvania that Joe Biden has pulled decisively ahead. Votes are still being counted, but the Trump presidency is over. Joe Biden will be the next President of the…

  By Ari Hoffman Nov 6, 2020 | 3 min read