In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
Racial justice and religious liberty go hand in hand. De Blasio pitted them against each other – and got sued.
Last week, New York emerged as the new center of ongoing legal conflicts between faith communities and stay-at-home orders. While churches have previously filed religious liberty lawsuits around the country, a new lawsuit — filed by two Catholic Priests and three Orthodox Jews — comes on the heels of heightened tensions over who is and…
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Opinion The lesson of ‘Pride’ on its 50th anniversary: People can change. Let’s use that to protect Black lives.
The first gay pride march took place in New York 50 years ago on June 28, 1970, with just a few thousand protesters in attendance. It wasn’t the decadent street festival with millions dancing to music that it is today. The first march was a courageous act by LGBTQ people of affirmation and self-declaration against…
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Opinion The Bronx desperately needs aid. Now is not a time for a novice.
We have a red-hot race going on in the 16th Congressional District, which I call home. Long-time Democratic Congressman Eliot Engel, born and raised in public housing, a former school teacher, and now head of the House Foreign Relations Committee, is facing a primary from Jamaal Bowman, also an educator, and an African-American man who…
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Opinion We hoped LGBTQ acceptance in Israel would help Palestinians. We were wrong.
Though progressive change comes rarely and slowly in Israel, the one area where there is consistent positive change is LGBTQ rights. Pride Month is a good time to reflect on our Israeli Movement’s success and the challenges ahead. The progress in the last twenty years toward equal rights and full acceptance of the LGBT community…
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Opinion Letter | Is Israel really Goliath in this story?
Dear Editor, Jodi Rudoren’s recent editorial raised an interesting point about when an attack should be classified as terrorism. However, this question barely scratches the surface of the complexities of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Consider, for instance, the question of asymmetry of the opposing sides. The editorial makes Israel, with its formidable…
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Opinion The ‘lost cause’ myth is everywhere in our culture. Now is the time to expose it – for a more just America
When the Civil War ended, there were no truth and reconciliation commissions formed to process memories, no Nuremberg Trials to enable reflection, no Great Emancipator to free the future from the past — only ghosts, and the ravenous politics of memory. The need for national reckoning was quickly subordinated to the political imperative of reunification,…
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Opinion Camp Himmler, Fort Eichmann? How would I, a Jewish soldier, feel if our army bases were named after Nazis
My mind was anxious as I landed at Frankfurt Airport in October 2004. Nearly 65 years prior, relatives on both sides of my family were either living under Nazi occupation in Eastern Europe or had already perished in the German concentration camps. My family that did survive the Holocaust came to America with nothing but…
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Opinion A moment of reckoning for Jewish voters: Eliot Engel or Jamaal Bowman
For many of us who grew up as part of the post-World War II American Jewish generation, a commitment to the concerns of the underprivileged was part of our self-definition as Jews. We took great pride in our involvement in the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, and the war on poverty. Figures like Rabbi…
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Opinion Yes, Black Lives Matter is religious. That’s a good thing.
No sooner had protesters poured into the streets following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer than commentators started offering interpretations. One provocative thesis: The Black Lives Matter movement has become a new religion. It was not meant as praise. One writer cringes at the “surrender-worship posture” of one Bethesda, Maryland demonstration…
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Opinion It’s time to work together to prevent an upsurge of anti-Semitism
While the United States was celebrating American Jewish Heritage Month in May, the global Jewish community was experiencing a further increase in anti-Semitic incidents, which cannot continue. As the world reeled from the COVID-19 global pandemic in March, the Iranian Ministry of Health decided to hold a cartoon contest entitled “We Defeat Coronavirus,” garnering thousands…
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Opinion Editorial | What James Bennet taught me about terrorism – and courage
The problem, James Bennet wrote in the opening lines of an internal New York Times memo, “was always where to stop, rather than where to start.” When “you draw a line” and say something “does not qualify,” he cautioned, “you commit what looks to the world like a political act, and may in fact be…
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