In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
It’s hard to connect to the Torah as a trans Jew. I’m trying anyway.
This essay originally appeared on Alma, 70 Faces Media’s feminist Jewish culture site. Had you asked me 20 years ago, 10 years ago, even last year (truthfully, last month) if I’d ever quote the Torah in a piece I was writing, I probably would have (respectfully and nervously) laughed in your face. The Torah makes…
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Opinion When it comes to race, American Jews must do a better job pursuing justice
Last month, the House of Representatives passed the The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a law designed to transform the way law enforcement interacts with Black communities nationwide. Especially as the trial of George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin, gets underway this week, it’s an important step to ending police abuses of Black people, and…
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Opinion Jews must stop letting the right smear Kristen Clarke as antisemitic — she’s the leader we need
This month, the Union for Reform Judaism — which represents some 850 congregations of the largest Jewish denomination in America — decided to endorse a presidential cabinet nomination for the first time, ever. The nominee: Kristen Clarke, who has been selected by President Joe Biden to lead the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. To…
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Opinion States’ attempts to roll back voting rights betray American values — and Jewish ones
The sweeping law that Georgia’s legislature passed on Thursday to restrict voting rights — part of a proliferation of such efforts Republicans are pushing in statehouses across the country — is shameful. I always thought it was tragic that comparatively few American citizens took seriously their right to vote. Now, rather than celebrating after the…
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Opinion Entering Passover under the plague of vaccine guilt
As I unpack my Passover dishes and prepare to host a Seder that includes my aging parents — an enormous luxury compared to last year’s Zoom-only reality at the start of the pandemic — I find myself facing waves of an unfamiliar feeling. Vaccine guilt: That’s the guilt you get when you’re vaccinated and other…
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Letters Letter | Talk of Tikun Olam is replacing real Judaism
To the editor: In her op-ed, found in these pages, Abby Seitz astonishingly asserted that the Arab Joint-List was the party that best reflected her Jewish values. She claimed that her rabbis and educators stress our people’s supposed longstanding commitment to Tikkun Olam, “repairing the world.” But in Judaism, Jews are tasked with adhering to…
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Opinion Meet the Israeli Reform rabbi who just made history getting elected to Knesset
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. It’s pretty difficult not to be…
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Opinion A new declaration aims to fight antisemitism without curtailing free speech
Antisemitism is on the rise, with powerful instigators behind it, but the struggle against it is at risk of being derailed by acrimonious divisions among Jews and others over its very meaning. The drive for adoption of a single, fixed definition of antisemitism has devolved into a polemical political debate on Israel and Palestine with…
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Opinion This year, I learned the pain and beauty of praying outside
This essay originally appeared in the New York Jewish Week. Friday night. We are standing in a paved plaza beside Riverside Drive; the air is crisp, the fresh snow is sparkling like diamond dust in the setting sun. We are 6 feet apart and masked (I can’t wait for this combined phrase to become obsolete)….
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Opinion The world is in pain this Passover. These rabbis have wisdom to help us embrace it.
(JTA) — This Passover, redemption feels so close — yet so far away. Nearly 50 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19; at least 543,000 have died from the disease. Some of us are able to safely gather with others for the Seder this year; many of us are still separated from loved ones….
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Opinion Israelis hold liberal views. Why do they vote right-wing?
“Polls are like perfume, you can smell, but never taste” said the late Shimon Peres — meaning that while polls prevent politicians from being blindsided by events, they are not a certain predictor of election results. Today’s polls indicate that the power of the Israeli Zionist left has been in serious decline. From a peak…
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Culture Why do Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas?
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Fast Forward Jewish groups defend European media monitors banned for what State Dept. calls ‘censorship’
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Fast Forward British police drop case against Bob Vylan for ‘Death to the IDF’ chant, sparking outrage from Jewish groups
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Yiddish יהודה גור-אריה און שירי שפּירא געווינען רובינליכט־פּריז פֿאַר ליטעראַטורYehuda Gur-Arye and Shiri Shapira win Rubinlicht Prize for Literature
די רובינליכט־פֿונדאַציע טיילט צו יערלעכע פּרעמיעס פֿאַר ליטעראַרישער און קולטורעלער טעטיקייט אויף ייִדיש און לטובֿת ייִדיש.
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Yiddish אַ בריוועלע דער מאַמען (אַ דערציילונג) A letter to my mother (story)
בעת אַ ייִדישער סאָלדאַט ליגט אין אַ סאָוועטישן מיליטערישן שפּיטאָל פֿאַרמעסט זיך זײַן מאַמע קעגן דעם ייִדישן הויפּט־דאָקטער
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