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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Letters
Letter | We are the Jewish AOCs
“Where are the Jewish leaders who speak for women?” Dr. Susannah Heschel asks this critical question in her July 27th opinion piece in these pages. She celebrates Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s recent speech on the House floor condemning Rep. Ted Yoho’s demeaning and insulting language and behavior which, unfortunately, is not unusual for women – especially…
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Opinion Make 2,000 years of mourning count: Use it to fight racism.
There is a story first documented at the end of the 1800s and almost certainly false: Napoleon was taking a walk in Paris one August evening when he heard a loud wailing from a nearby synagogue. His servants investigated and found people sitting on the ground, barefoot, weeping into prayer books. They informed Napoleon that…
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Opinion It’s time for a revolution in halakhic rulings.
The realities of quarantine and sheltering-in-place during these last few months have created challenges for the halakhically-observant community. Halakhic decisors have issued their rulings, responding appropriately and sympathetically to these unprecedented realities. What has largely been absent, however, is a serious engagement with the person asking the question; sympathetic psak is not the same as…
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Opinion Letter | Of course Judaism believes in cancel culture
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…
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Opinion Where is the Jewish AOC?
The Jewish president of a major American university came to speak many years ago at Dartmouth College, where I am a professor, and denounced affirmative action as a serious threat to Jews. I pointed out to him that affirmative action had been tremendously beneficial to my own career as a woman who is also a…
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Opinion What the world can learn from the Orthodox response to COVID
In what we now know as the “early days” of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the waves of the virus washed over New York and New Jersey, the Haredi communities in the area seemed to get hit disproportionately hard. While no hard data exists to either validate or disprove this perception, it continues to persist both…
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Opinion Can editors recognize anti-Semitism? An article about Soros suggests no
It was a shock to read in The Chicago Tribune that George Soros is the secret force causing Chicago’s woes. Yes, that’s The Chicago Tribune, one of America’s major papers, not Hungarian propaganda. And worse, the column claimed that Soros, the Hungarian-born philanthropist, was the reason for the problems of — wait for it —…
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Opinion Nobody canceled Shammai. Our tradition demands we respect the argument.
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…
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Opinion Most Americans are now self-censoring. We’re regressing.
It’s common to hear anecdotes about friends or family who just don’t feel comfortable discussing politics anymore. It’s not that most of these people are bomb-throwing radicals, but many seem to think the country is so polarized that nothing good can come from voicing their own opinion. A new poll from the Cato Institute and…
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Opinion Debate is a Jewish sacrament
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…
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Opinion China is perpetrating genocide. We’ve seen this before.
Samuel Willenberg normally worked on the fences. His job did not routinely bring him near the thousands of women who disembarked at Treblinka every day. One day, however, he was pulled aside by guards and forced to work as a “barber” cutting the hair of women on their way to the gas chambers. There he…
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