Opinion

• Opinion

  A Jewish mom adopted me. The Supreme Court could make finding a home like mine much harder.

  Nine years ago, just before my eighth birthday, I was placed in foster care. My birth mother was extremely ill; I did not expect to go home to her, and had no idea if I would ever see her again. There was a shortage of foster families in my rural county, and none who wanted…

  By John Currie

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Biden’s Palestinian aid package is a start — but doesn’t go nearly far enough

  Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared the U.S. would restore financial assistance to the Palestinians with a first package totaling $235 million. The package comes as part of what the Biden administration described in a press release as its commitment “to advancing prosperity, security, and freedom for both Israelis and Palestinians in…

  By Muhammad Shehada Apr 16, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘Shabbat is my time for figuring out the world’: a Q/A with Robin Washington, our new Editor-at-Large

  This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent 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. Something different this week: a…

  By Jodi Rudoren Apr 16, 2021 | 7 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz As editor-in-chief, I’m finding my way Forward (and back)

  

• Rob Eshman UpScrolled is a social media haven for unspeakable antisemitism. How does that help Palestinians?

  

• Dan Perry You could be imprisoned for praying at the Western Wall — and Bibi isn’t stopping it

  

• Emily Tamkin In Trump’s instinct to punish and desecrate, a rejection of the values of King David

  

• Jay Michaelson Tragically, ‘genocide’ has become a meaningless word

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Every reason to celebrate Israel this Yom Ha’atzmaut

  The last century witnessed more than its fair share of horrors, but also its allotment of glories: man landing on the moon, breakthroughs in civil and women’s rights and the defeats of both fascism and communism, among other great steps forward. Perhaps two of its greatest stories of the triumph of life over death are…

  By Ari Hoffman Apr 15, 2021 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Rabbis weigh in: How should we respond to Bernie Madoff’s death?

  On Wednesday, Bernie Madoff, made infamous by an enormous Ponzi scheme that caused devastation throughout the Jewish world, died in a federal prison at age 82. While Jewish tradition puts serious emphasis on honoring the deceased, the death of someone like Madoff, who caused tremendous pain within the Jewish community, is an emotionally fraught challenge…

  By Forward Staff Apr 14, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  An elusive search for the whole truth in the Chauvin trial

  Anyone searching for the truth — as in the whole truth — in the Derek Chauvin trial might be reminded of the Yiddish phrase: a halber emes iz a gantser lign — a half-truth is a whole lie. I’m not suggesting that witnesses have lied on the stand. But neither the prosecutors nor the defense…

  By Robin Washington Apr 14, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Derek Chauvin trial: 3 questions America needs to ask about seeking racial justice in a court of law

  The following op-ed first appeared in The Conversation. There is a difference between enforcing the law and being the law. The world is now witnessing another in a long history of struggles for racial justice in which this distinction may be ignored. Derek Chauvin, a 45-year-old white former Minneapolis police officer, is on trial for…

  By Lewis R. Gordon Apr 14, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  ‘A guy can be both’: Black and Jewish Like Jesus and Me

  Editor’s Note: This is an adapted version of an essay originally published in the 1997 book “Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Piece,” edited by Ishmael Reed. We are republishing it now, as the author, Robin Washington, joins the Forward as Editor-at-Large. While some circumstances and facts may have changed — such as the…

  By Robin Washington Apr 13, 2021 | 7 min read
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  Opinion

  Arkansas banned gender-affirming care for teens. That same care saved my life.

  Last week, the Arkansas legislature overrode the governor’s veto to implement a heinous law that would ban gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and non-binary youth in that state. I want to share my own gender story so you can hear how access to trans-affirming health care has allowed me to live my own authentic truth. Five…

  By Sawyer Goldsmith Apr 12, 2021 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Letter to my community: My faith in Judaism and my faith in unions are one and the same

  I’d like to clarify some comments I made in a recent interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Those remarks sparked a controversy. Unfortunately, a few issues got conflated in the interview. For that, I apologize. In the interview, I intended to point out that while there was a time in our Jewish communal history in…

  By Randi Weingarten Apr 12, 2021 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Eichmann’s trial set the stage for more battles over the Shoah — including my own

  Today, April 11, marks the 60th anniversary of the opening of Adolf Eichmann’s trial in Israel, a watershed moment in Jewish history. The Eichmann trial was the first time in 2,000 years that Jews, represented by the Jewish state, could call an oppressor to account. Ever since the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem,…

  By Deborah E. Lipstadt Apr 11, 2021 | 5 min read