Opinion

• Opinion

  Don’t call Hasidim anti-science. They kept COVID at bay all summer.

  There’s been a rise in COVID cases among Hasidim, and the world is pointing a finger. See? Hasidim have been ignoring COVID precautions, they’ve been doing their old (old) normal like nobody’s business, no masks or measuring tape or shields or baths of hand-sanitizer, and now naysayers are saying I-told-you-so with barely masked glee, pun…

  By Frieda Vizel

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  This Sukkot, as we contemplate our vulnerability, remember the Uighurs

  Sukkot is a holiday of vulnerability. For a week, we enter a temporary dwelling at the mercy of the elements. In so doing, we remember the period when a newly born nation of refugees and escaped slaves from Egypt wandered in the desert. We submit ourselves to life beneath the stars and embrace the uncertainty…

  By Jonah Kaye and Leon Kraiem Oct 1, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Debate | Can you compare the Proud Boys to Antifa?

  By almost all accounts, Tuesday’s debate between President Trump and Vice President Biden will be remembered most for the President’s refusal to condemn the anti-Semitic white supremacist group known as the Proud Boys. But the context of those words involved another controversial group altogether: Antifa. Chris Wallace asked President Donald Trump to condemn white supremacists…

  By Ari Hoffman and Joel Swanson Sep 30, 2020 | 10 min read

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• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

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• Rob Eshman There’s a shocking new report on civilian deaths in Gaza. If only it were accurate.

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s new gift to the far right could help end the Gaza war

  

• Emily Tamkin Entering motherhood — and an obsession with the works of an Italian Jewish literary hero

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  They criticized us for comparing Trump’s hate to the Nazis. Then he told the Proud Boys to ‘stand by.’

  The Jewish Democratic Council of America, the organization which I lead, released a political ad on Tuesday highlighting the parallels between President Donald Trump’s use of hatred for political purposes and the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. The ad, which juxtaposes images of Nazis inspired by Hitler with those inspired by President Trump, was…

  By Halie Soifer Sep 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Stop saying ‘science is on the ballot.’ Only morality can sway voters.

  In last night’s debate, when Joe Biden said “we don’t trust” President Trump on a coronavirus vaccine, but “we trust the scientists, we trust Dr. Fauci,” he wasn’t just talking about the politics of a vaccine; he was sounding a theme that has become prominent in Democratic politics: trust in science and scientific experts to…

  By Benjamin Dueholm Sep 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  AOC abandoned peace to satisfy the purity demands of the left

  Last week, the pro-peace organization Americans for Peace Now proudly announced that Bronx Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young and charismatic avatar of the new American left, would participate in an event honoring Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated 25 years ago for making peace with the Palestinians. But their announcement resulted in a barrage of online…

  By Etan Nechin Sep 29, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  On the federal bench and carpool too? Amy Coney Barrett is making us working moms look bad

  Amy Coney Barrett is bad for women. Her nomination to the Supreme Court might actually be a setback for working mothers. I’m not talking about her anti-abortion ideology or her opposition to the Affordable Care Act. Let’s stipulate that reasonable people can disagree about such things. Even reasonable women: 38% of American women believe abortion…

  By Jodi Rudoren Sep 27, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  AOC should honor Rabin. She should honor Arafat, too.

  Recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, star of the American left, announced that she would participate in an Americans for Peace Now event honoring Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister assassinated 25 years ago for his role trying to make peace with the Palestinians through the Oslo Accords. But the congresswoman was soon called out by activists…

  By Muhammad Shehada Sep 25, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Jewish American pioneer who embraced both worlds

  On Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, we pause to remember those who passed in the prior year. Over the span of 5780, we lost so many giants and icons – Chadwick Boseman, Kobe Bryant, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Kirk Douglas, Katherine Johnson, Larry Kramer, Jim Lehrer, Rep. John Lewis,…

  By Jonathan A. Greenblatt Sep 25, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  We asked you to share your sins. Here’s what 127 readers said.

  This is an article version of our weekly Shabbat newsletter. Click here to sign up to get the Forward’s free newsletters in your inbox. And click here to download and print a PDF of Forward stories to savor over the weekend. When I was in college, I never went home for Yom Kippur. I tried…

  By Jodi Rudoren Sep 25, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Jewish tradition offers the abortion debate: Some much needed nuance.

  Long before the political hyper-polarization currently plaguing American society, abortion was a divisive political issue. “Pro-lifers” punched the air in one corner of the ring; “pro-choicers” in the other. The latter won the match in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade established women’s constitutional right to choose to end a pregnancy….

  Sep 25, 2020 | 3 min read