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
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…
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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…
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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….
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Opinion Israel’s fourth elections are a sign of democratic health – and resistance to Bibi
The news of Israel’s upcoming election, its fourth in less than two years, has been cast as a sign of dysfunction and instability in the country’s political system. It is taken for granted in the West that these are necessarily bad things, at least, if the amusing messages of sympathy from Americans to their Israeli…
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Opinion Open Letter | Brandeis University Press is silencing debate
Read a response to this letter from Brandeis University Press here. We are a group of scholars whose research is connected to American Jewish history and experience. All of us have read the preface that Professor Marc Dollinger submitted to Brandeis University Press this fall. We hold a variety of perspectives about its claims and…
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Opinion Roundtable | What from 2020 are you taking into the new year with you? 15 opinion writers weigh in
Ah, 2020. You will live on in our memories as truly and unforgettably terrible. And yet, there are things that we will definitely be carrying with us into 2021. For every challenge brings a lesson worth learning. To this end, we asked some of our opinion writers: What’s one lesson you learned from the dumpster…
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Opinion Is bypassing politics how you bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians? New U.S. legislation says yes.
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a simple one: Every prior attempt at peace ultimately hit the same obstacle, namely, Israelis and Palestinians would not budge because they did not believe they had a partner on the other side. It’s a problem that has only intensified since the last attempts at…
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Fast Forward Hegseth says ‘no more beardos’ in the military. What about religious exemptions?
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News Hundreds of Northwestern students can’t register for class because they won’t watch an antisemitism training video. Here’s what’s in it.
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Fast Forward The ADL doesn’t speak for New York Jews’ concerns, says Zohran Mamdani
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News Why was Netanyahu wearing a QR code at the UN, and where did it lead?
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Fast Forward Hamas says it’s ready to release all Israeli hostages but does not offer clear ‘yes’ to Trump’s plan
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Fast Forward In Saudi Arabia, Dave Chappelle jokes that ‘I stand with Israel’ would be his code for censorship
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Opinion Two years after Oct. 7, even Israelis are losing faith in Israel
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Fast Forward Israel to spend up to $4.1 million on Christian PR campaign in western U.S., filings show
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