Opinion

• Opinion

  My fellow Jews: Getting rid of Trump is a religious imperative

  In a recent interview covered by several Jewish outlets, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Great Britain’s former Chief Rabbi, condemned American rabbis who’ve made untraditional endorsements in the 2020 election. “I’m afraid American Jewry is making a big, big, big mistake,” Sacks said. “You mix religion and politics, you get terrible politics and even worse religion.” Rabbi…

  By Ben Gould

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jews in the Pacific Northwest are turning on each other

  It’s a Shabbat in the summer of 2020 and the Rabbi has poured shots to toast L’Chaiym like he does every week. As we go around to share our goods news for the week, I begin white knuckling my fist when a guest of the Shabbat group raises a glass in honor of President Trump…

  By Greg Cohen and Pauline Brown Sep 4, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  I’m Black and Jewish. Stop telling me Black Lives Matter is ‘political’

  Can we talk about race? I am a Black, queer, Jewish woman. Over the course of my life, I have encountered the same racial problem with the leaders of organizations that I have worked or volunteered for, and communities that I am engaged in. That problem is passive complicity, and its sting is especially sharp…

  By Tiziana Friedman Sep 4, 2020 | 5 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

  Why it Matters that Kamala Cooks

  The video is less than a minute long but I watch it for over an hour. How much does @KamalaHarris like to cook? She answered my husband’s ? about brining a turkey about 1 min before going on @PoliticsNation from Columbia, SC (after I was on). I recorded her response ‘cause I don’t cook and…

  By Carly Pildis Sep 3, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Peace with the UAE is fabulous. But Israel’s existential problem is at home.

  Shortly after the El Al jet arrived back from Abu Dhabi at Ben Gurion Airport last Tuesday, bringing the dignitaries and a large chunk of Israel’s press corps home, an Israeli radio channel broadcast a scoop: Israel and the United Arab Emirates will negotiate jointly sending astronauts to outer space. There was great excitement in…

  By Ori Nir Sep 3, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  Letter | God’s name is a breath

  Dear Editor, Abigail Pogrebin’s exploration of a group of rabbis’ conceptions of God is intriguing. Yet it leaves out some of the more transformative approaches, especially those deeply influenced by Eco-Judaism. In my new book, Dancing in God’s Earthquake: The Coming Transformation of Religion (Orbis, October 2020), I have explored one of the oldest biblical…

  By Arthur Waskow Sep 2, 2020 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The anti-Semitic backstory of QAnon

  QAnon is one of the strangest developments on the current political scene. Originating in 2017 on the often racist imageboard website 4chan, its members believe that the world is really being run by a secret cabal of devil-worshiping pedophiles, who include billionaires like Bill Gates, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, and high-profile Democratic politicians like Hilary…

  By David Livingstone Smith Sep 2, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Biden has always sided with Israel. He will be the last Democratic leader to do so.

  With ten weeks left until the election, the Joe Biden presidential campaign has affirmed that it intends to strike roughly the same posture on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as President Obama did. In a newly published platform aimed at the Arab American community, Biden’s camp reiterates that while the former vice president will defend the free…

  By Zaid Jilani Sep 2, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re in an epidemic of Schadenfreude

  We are approaching the moment in the Jewish calendar that commemorates the birthday of the world. But rather than celebrating our shared place on this planet, the election cycle in which we are currently embroiled has created a chasm between many of God’s creatures, even pitting us against one another. Worst of all is the…

  By Joel Cohen Aug 31, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  For the sins we committed by publishing articles with typos….

  This is an adaptation of our Shabbat Newsletter, which is sent Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the newsletter (and our daily emails) delivered to your inbox each week. It’s not just typos. A couple of months ago, I had to re-send a corrected version of our weekly Shabbat newsletter because I mistakenly lumped Teddy…

  By Jodi Rudoren Aug 28, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  The lesson of Trump’s RNC speech: The Left needs to put its issues on hold for now

  In response to the prominent placement of people of color at the Republican convention, wildly disproportionate to their ranks in the party, liberal commentators painted the GOP’s pretensions to diversity as a way to reassure center-right white suburbanites that they aren’t racist for supporting President Trump. There is definitely some truth to this. A double-digit…

  By Abe Silberstein Aug 28, 2020 | 3 min read