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
This new social justice theory is making academia dangerous for Jews
This June, two Jewish mental health providers at Stanford University alleged they were the targets of anti-Jewish harassment. Ron Albucher, a prominent psychiatrist and Sheila Levin, a clinical social worker, have filed a legal complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on June 15. The complaint alleges that Stanford University’s Counseling & Psychological Services’ Diversity,…
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Opinion Wear sunscreen. Put down your phone. Be kind. We are all graduates in the Class of 2021.
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. Wear sunscreen. Perhaps the most…
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Opinion We can’t defeat antisemitism by attacking our fellow Jews
As antisemitic attacks on Jews across the globe continue, there is another threat to our people we aren’t talking about enough. It’s called sinat chinam — baseless hatred. As we struggle to cope with this rise in violence and hatred against our community, we’re also spending time hating each other — and it’s tearing us…
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Opinion It’s time to end the ‘special’ relationship between Israel and the U.S.
The departure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday was met with an audible sigh of relief from pro-Israel Democrats. The man they deemed primarily responsible for the turning of Israel into a so-called “partisan issue” was gone — at least for a while. Some advocates of the U.S.-Israel relationship now see an opportunity to…
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Letters Letter | Focusing on straw-men is disservice to women and distracts us from real concerns about abuse
Editor: As a sociologist who has worked in the areas of gender inequality and violence against women for nearly four decades, I am deeply concerned by the recently published article describing the failure of the Conservative Movement to respond appropriately to ethical violations including sexual misconduct and the article’s highlighting of one particular rabbi’s censure…
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Opinion I’m glad Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for her Holocaust comparisons. What she does next matters more
It’s not easy to apologize. It’s even harder to transform an apology into meaningful change. On June 14, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene held a press conference in front of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and apologized for her statements equating the Holocaust to mask mandates. After her tour, she said, “There are words that I…
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Opinion Most Jews won’t set foot in a synagogue. That’s why rabbis need to think like entrepreneurs.
(JTA) — On March 13, nearly a year to the day after Temple Beth El of Charlotte, North Carolina, closed due to COVID-19, Rabbi Dusty Klass gathered the congregation’s 900 households for a shared — albeit remote — Jewish experience. Unable to gather her community for worship, Klass and her colleagues, including operations manager Nathalie…
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Opinion Omar’s comments aren’t just about Israel— they threaten the ties of Jews and the Democratic Party
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s tweets have landed her in the news, once again. Following an exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which Omar urged him to investigate both Israel and Hamas for human rights violations, Omar tweeted, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity….
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Opinion What’s so scary about Rep. Ilhan Omar?
Republicans, Democratic congressional leadership, and Jewish members of Congress are again condemning Rep. Ilhan Omar. The latest uproar is yet another example that in the hallowed halls of Congress, telling the truth about malevolent U.S. and Israeli foreign policy is treated as blasphemy. On June 7, following an exchange with Secretary of State Antony Blinken…
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Opinion 57 years ago, my rabbi dad was arrested marching for civil rights. What can we learn from his example?
Juneteenth is almost here. The holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, is observed annually on the anniversary of June 19, 1865. People and news traveled much slower in those days, but true freedom took even longer. There would be another century of “legal” Jim Crow segregation and discrimination until the passage of…
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Opinion Tikkun Olam on Juneteenth
Despite the fact that it’s a celebration, I have bittersweet feelings about Juneteenth. Its origins are traced to Union troops arriving in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, bringing the news of freedom to that region’s slaves—months after the South’s surrender and 2-1/2 years past the Emancipation Proclamation. That our ancestors were freed from slavery…
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Opinion New York’s Israel Day parade was a shanda — but not because of Mamdani
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Opinion How can I live freely as a Jew in a world where strangers rip my mezuzah off my doorframe?
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Opinion Israeli and diaspora Jews live in different realities. The Israel Day parade proved it
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Opinion Trump’s humiliation of Netanyahu marks a sea change in the US-Israel relationship
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Fast Forward Majority of House Democrats vote to defeat Lebanon war powers measure
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Fast Forward After years of hostile relations with Israel, Slovenia’s new prime minister signals diplomatic reset
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Opinion Israel gives in to the politics of debasement
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Looking Forward My irrational, possibly problematic obsession with an $85 yarmulke