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
-
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,…
-
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…
-
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…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Opinion How our growing consensus against racism turned into a moral panic
I remember going to Eric Garner’s funeral in the summer of 2014. And I remember the fights I had with conservative family members after it, screaming matches that left us bruised and unwilling to talk for months at a time. They were the same fights we had over Michael Brown’s death and the Ferguson protests…
-
Opinion What does Jewish tradition say about ‘Defund the Police’? It’s complicated.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officer Derick Chauvin, a new cry has emerged from amidst the protests against racism and police brutality shaking the nation: Defund the Police. The cry means different things to different people, but in addition to addressing the fraught tensions between black communities and…
-
Opinion Why I Have Come to Support Defunding the Police
The murder of George Floyd was a revelation for white America. The image of a man lying on the street for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, his body limp beneath the officer’s knee, has transfixed and could transform the nation. To witness the breath of life casually pulled from a man’s body is to see…
-
Opinion You don’t have to choose between Black Lives Matter and Israel
All of last week and into this one, Americans grieved and demonstrated and were beaten in the streets by police as we protested George Floyd’s murder. It is an emotional time, with the wins of the Black Lives Matter movement making change seem, finally, possible. Yet existing communal tensions remained. All week, I’ve been asked…
-
Opinion As the next generation of Modern Orthodox leaders, we demand real change.
We are Modern Orthodox success stories: products of day school education, Jewish summer camps, and gap years in Israel. We are active participants in Jewish life on our campuses, ardent Zionists, and Torah enthusiasts. Our religious upbringings have taught us that Jewish communities do not stand idly by when faced with injustice. And George Floyd’s…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward DNC finding: Biden’s Israel backing cost Harris votes for president
- 2
News What We Know About Jeffrey Epstein’s Childhood
- 3
News An audiobook narrator told Zionists to kill themselves. A popular romance novelist hired him anyway.
- 4
Opinion The dark message behind Tucker Carlson’s attempt to drum up drama in Israel
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward NYC synagogue protest bill tasks police with developing a protection plan. Mamdani still hasn’t committed to sign
-
Antisemitism Decoded After Minneapolis, a Youtuber comes for Jewish ‘welfare queens’
-
Fast Forward Atlanta Jewish Film Festival apologizes for selecting anti-Zionist juror
-
Culture How a new generation of comics is changing the face of Jewish comedy — and Judaism itself
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
