In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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Opinion
The Jewish community is facing unprecedented challenges. Here’s how we move forward.
There is no sugarcoating this moment: We are facing extraordinary challenges as a country — and as a community. These sets of challenges are inherently linked; when democracy and civil society are threatened, so are Jews. And in many ways, the Jewish community is a reflection of the larger struggles of American society. There has…
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Opinion Letter | What’s taking the younger generation so long to lose Israel?
Dear Editor, Regarding Sarah Farb’s recent article on Israel’s looming annexation of Palestinian territory: I get it. I was raised as a Zionist and hung on to that identity for too many years. I was ignorant. I was brainwashed by my temple, community, and the media. Once I learned the actual history (including several trips…
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Opinion Letter | To make the protests matter, young people must show up to vote this November
Dear Editor, I was impressed with the passion expressed by the two young authors of Noa Sokatch and Ella Rubin’s June 22 article, and applaud them for invoking tikkun olam as a guiding principle in their lives. As an octogenarian retired scientist, who believes strongly in tikkun olam, it gives me hope for the future…
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Opinion We can – we must – show up as Zionists for Black Lives Matter
America is going through a revolutionary time. Americans of all stripes have been galvanized to participate in racial justice activism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the protests it engendered. But some American Jews have been feeling tentative about joining in, the legacy of the pain and confusion we felt four…
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Opinion What Poland’s anti-Semitic ‘all lives matter’ moment can teach Americans
On Sunday, Poland will hold its presidential election, after postponing the original election date in May due to coronavirus lockdowns. The incumbent president, Andrzej Duda of the right-wing Law and Justice Party, is running for reelection to a second term, and while President Duda enjoyed a comfortable lead for most of the campaign, recent polls…
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Opinion Israel will lose my entire generation if it goes ahead with annexation
As a kid from Toronto, Canada, I grew up enmeshed in one of North America’s largest Jewish communities. Part and parcel of virtually all those Jewish spaces was a kind of Zionism that was strong, but ultimately ambiguous. Support for Israel was of paramount importance, but what that support really meant — especially at moments…
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Opinion The witch hunts of the left revive Soviet ghosts
Forty years ago next month, I came to the United States from what was then the Soviet Union. Less than four years ago, I wrote about my worry that certain elements of both the old USSR and Vladimir Putin’s new authoritarian Russia were on the rise in the country I now call home: on the…
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Opinion The idolatry of smashing idols
For millennia, Jews have been obsessed with the danger of idols. Monotheism was born in the Chaldean back room where Abraham smashed his father’s figurines, men and women of clay whose favor was courted by those of flesh and blood. The Bible warns endlessly of idolatry, and its anxious denunciations testify to both the danger…
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Opinion Letter | Responses to ‘It’s not Black Lives Matter’s job to make you comfortable about Israel’
Dear Editor, In a recent OpEd, Abe Silberstein argued that “It’s not Black Lives Matter’s job to make you feel comfortable about Israel.” What exactly does that mean? Consider the possibility that we are not centering our concerns, but rather that we recognize when others seek to justify their dismissal of our concerns. If it…
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Opinion Amid the pandemic and protests, celebrating 50 years of marching for LQBTQ rights
Fifty years ago, in June of 1970, the gay communities in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and New York City gathered to commemorate the Stonewall Riots that had happened a year earlier, the moment when many say the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender civil rights movement began. In Los Angeles, led by Rev. Troy Perry,…
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Opinion I am the architect of the U.S.-Israel police exchange. Don’t believe the lies.
The nationwide demonstrations following the horrific killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis have launched a pressing conversation about race and law enforcement in America. Unfortunately, some are cynically trying to drag Israel into the debate, claiming the Jewish state is responsible for incidents of police brutality…
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Opinion The dark message behind Tucker Carlson’s attempt to drum up drama in Israel
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