Opinion

• Opinion

  Letter | Racism played no part in my parents’ decision to send me to day school

  Dear Editor, Racism played no part in my parents’ decision for my brother, sister, and me to have a day school education. In 1949 my parents absorbed a pay cut and moved to an apartment above a store on a busy street after they learned that Cincinnati had begun a day school and Nashville hadn’t….

  By Paul L. Newman

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  What the taboo on criticizing Israel can teach us about cancel culture

  Last week, in the aftermath of Bari Weiss’s resignation from the New York Times, some noted the hypocrisy of conservative “free speech warriors” who nevertheless enjoyed shutting down open debate about Israel. I think they were right to note the hypocrisy, but wrong to think it is politically one-sided. Having fought the Jewish communal chill…

  By Andrew Rehfeld Jul 20, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The media is splintering. That’s a good thing.

  There is a revolution in the air, but it’s not the one you’ve heard of happening on the streets. Like many changes in the intellectual weather, it is both in plain sight and not yet fully visible. The revolution is a series of events that have become a pattern: Yascha Mounk founding a new “community”…

  By Ari Hoffman Jul 20, 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 Want to understand what’s wrong with the ‘pro-Palestine’ movement? This Palestinian can help

  

• 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

  American churches think they can ignore Covid and racial justice. But they aren’t going away.

  On a late June Sunday, Americans were treated to jaw-dropping images of a festive, mask-free patriotic rally with Vice President Pence at a Dallas megachurch, First Baptist. Local COVID-19 cases were already rising sharply, on their way to making Texas one of the epicenters of the summer surge, and unprecedented protests for police reform and…

  By Benjamin Dueholm Jul 20, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  A new intelligentsia is pushing back against wokeness

  William Lloyd Garrison, one of the United States’ most important abolitionists, lived with a bounty on his head for much of his life. His newspaper, The Liberator, advocated for an immediate end to slavery, and he faced down a lynch mob more than once for his writing. One of his avid readers was a formerly…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Jul 20, 2020 | 19 min read
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  Opinion

  Black Lives Matter has exposed a generational divide for Soviet Jews

  I have a memory from just after we moved to America. We still had to walk a fair distance to get groceries, and I recall a hot summer day and a long walk in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Most vividly, I recall my mother’s face as we entered the store. She was beaming at the fully-stocked…

  By Alex Zeldin Jul 19, 2020 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Propagandists on either side of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict have erased the possibility of persuasion

  This article is part of a new series called “On Persuasion.” We asked thought leaders to consider what persuasion means to them. What works in terms of persuading people? Is it moot in 2020? What is the Jewish value of persuasion? Should we be opening our minds to other points of view, or closing them…

  By Muhammad Shehada Jul 17, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What we lose when we turn our backs on persuasion

  This article is part of a new series called “On Persuasion.” We asked thought leaders to consider what persuasion means to them. What works in terms of persuading people? Is it moot in 2020? What is the Jewish value of persuasion? Should we be opening our minds to other points of view, or closing them…

  By Pamela Paresky and Shadi Bartsch Jul 17, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  We don’t talk about ‘White anti-Semitism.’ Stop talking about Black anti-Semitism

  It’s a difficult topic to bring up in mixed company, but it must be said: We need to have an honest conversation about White anti-Semitism. The anti-Semitism that exists throughout the White community is frightening. Many people know about White movie star Mel Gibson, who famously said that “the Jews are responsible for all the…

  By Mike Rothbaum Jul 16, 2020 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Why are right wing Jews defending Sebastian Gorka, a man with ties to a Nazi-allied group?

  The Jews don’t agree on much these days. Our community is divided by Trump, by Israel, by questions of religious observance. But you would think that if there were one thing we could all agree upon, it would be that members of far-right military orders linked to the Nazis are bad and should be condemned….

  By Joel Swanson Jul 16, 2020 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Editorial | I don’t recognize the NYT that Bari Weiss quit

  I do not recognize the New York Times that Bari Weiss describes in her resignation letter, and it terrifies me. This is not to say I do not believe Bari’s description of her experience, nor that I did not see some of what she laments in her letter before I left The Times last year…

  By Jodi Rudoren Jul 14, 2020 | 4 min read