Opinion

• 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

  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

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• 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

  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
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  Opinion

  Letter | I’m being accused of racism for standing up for Jews

  In the 1960s, I went to Mississippi to register Black voters. It was only natural for me; I had been a regular participant in sit-ins for Black housing rights and protest marches for civil rights. Having grown up in an all-Black neighborhood, I, like many other Jews at the time, thought it was horrifying that…

  By Mort Klein Sep 17, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How to celebrate Rosh Hashanah while tormented by the pain of others

  Our people have not avoided tragedy or chaos. Its rabbinic form was birthed in the crucible of the demolished Temple, crushed uprising, and loss of sovereignty. The Romans killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and sold similar numbers into slavery. But it was only the beginning. Our great sage, Moses Maimonides once reflected on the…

  By Joshua Stanton Sep 17, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  28 million Americans blame Jews for the Holocaust. Our schools are failing.

  Survey results on Holocaust knowledge in America are in, and the findings are terrifying. Not only do they show a shocking level of ignorance, but they reinforce findings about all adults, as well as trends throughout western Europe. And they coincide with a disturbing rise in Neo-Nazi propaganda, antisemitic feelings, and hate crimes against Jews….

  By John A. Tures Sep 17, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Call it what it is: Normalization of men. The women stayed home.

  On Tuesday, on the White House lawn, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain celebrated the signing of the Abraham Accords peace deal between the three countries. The spouses of the U.S. President and the Israeli Prime Minister were the only women participants in the normalization signing ceremony. This is not a coincidence. Women have…

  By Noa Balf Sep 17, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We’re calling for ZOA to be kicked out of Boston’s JCRC

  This summer, we have had challenging conversations with our friends, our children, and our synagogue communities about racial injustices in the world. It would have been easy to avoid these conversations. Instead, we chose to engage in difficult discussions about systemic racism, since our friends of color do not have the luxury of opting out….

  By Beth Badik and Rabbi Barbara Penzner Sep 15, 2020 | 4 min read