Opinion

• Opinion

  Republicans abandoned Jewish students. The media blamed the Democrats.

  If you were online this week, you may have read that the Democrats don’t care about antisemitism. Tweets, posts, and articles told us that “162 House Dems Vote Against Measure to Combat Anti-Semitism,” “70 Percent of House Democrats Vote Against Anti-Semitism Measure,” “Antisemitism Clearly Isn’t a Priority for the House,” and “Measure to Fight Anti-Semitism…

  By Amanda Berman

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  American Jews craving revolution: Move to Israel and be its leaders

  President Trump recently offended many Jews (including this Israeli-American one) when he told American Jewish leaders in a pre-Rosh Hashanah call, “We love your country also.” America, not Israel, is the country of American Jews. Israel may be the spiritual homeland for Jews around the world, like the Vatican for Catholics or Mecca for Muslims….

  By Yoni Leviatan Sep 22, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Uighurs are today’s Marranos. This year, Kol Nidre is about them.

  “From this Yom Kippur until the next, may [all vows] be deemed absolved, annulled, and abandoned.” Within Jewish communities, there has always been some reticence towards the Kol Nidrei prayer. The ninth century sage Rav Amram Gaon deemed Kol Nidrei a “mistaken custom,” and 10th century sage Rav Saadia Gaon declared that it gave no…

  By Jonah Kaye Sep 22, 2020 | 4 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 ‘Israel is seen as violent’ — and Israeli chefs, once global culinary icons, are feeling the heat

  

• Nora Berman Did Netanyahu coerce Trump into attacking Iran? No — but he tried with Obama

  

• Dan Perry Trump wants to control the Israeli judiciary. Uh, good luck

  

• Emily Tamkin Zohran Mamdani’s victory proves it: The ‘gotcha’ mode of fighting antisemitism has to go

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  A rushed confirmation would be a travesty. Ruth Bader Ginsburg taught us how to fight it.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a daughter of Brooklyn, fixture in Washington, and no-doubt-about-it entrant into any list of all time greatest American jurist, held on for as long as she could. Like Civil Rights hero John Lewis, her nearly nine decades seemed not nearly enough, and she exits just when we might need her the most….

  By Ari Hoffman Sep 21, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Tragic Mistake

  The passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves a hole in the heart and soul of America that feels, for the moment at least, so vast that the angels themselves could not fill it. What’s worse, it is a hole big enough for the devil to walk through. Her departure, just as the…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 21, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  May her memory be a revolution: we are all notorious now

  Devastating blows define us. Loss shapes who we are. While we cannot control what is happening, we can control our response to it. For so many of us millennial Jewish women, Ruth Bader Ginsburg became more than a Supreme Court Justice. She represented the country we wanted to believe we were in. She represented a…

  By Carly Pildis Sep 19, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a true ‘tzadik,’ battled to the end. Now it’s on us.

  Jewish tradition says this is the most auspicious time of year to die. The idea, as I understand it, is this: If God is deciding during the High Holy Days who shall live and who shall die over the next year — inscribing and then sealing us all in the imagined Book of Life and…

  By Jodi Rudoren Sep 19, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg ‘represented an ideal of American Jewish liberalism’

  RBG died, and the tears flowed

  By Jane Eisner Sep 19, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The right way to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  The way to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to embody her multitude of qualities, and take them forward into a certain struggle Ginsburg, who died at 87 on Friday, the eve of the Jewish New Year, did not come by her icon status quickly or easily. It was built, year after year, decision after decision,…

  By Rob Eshman Sep 19, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Stop the fear-mongering. Holocaust education is good – and it works.

  Last week, a major survey was released about Holocaust education in the United States. The findings were heartening: 80% of U.S. college students reported receiving at least some Holocaust education during high school, 78% of those students reported knowing a lot or a moderate amount about the Holocaust, and students exposed to Holocaust education were…

  By Stephen D. Smith Sep 18, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What to do with the Trump Jews?

  I have spent a great deal of time thinking about how the American Jewish community will grapple with the post-Trump era, which I hope and believe is months rather than years away. Leaders of mainstream Jewish institutions appear to be too sanguine about the health of communal discourse. Two news items this week put the…

  By Abe Silberstein Sep 18, 2020 | 3 min read