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
‘You can’t reconcile a nation that’s never been equal.’ Three black pastors reflect on this moment.
We’re living through a historic time. On the heels of a devastating coronavirus pandemic that left over 100,000 Americans dead and 25% of Americans without a job, racist episodes started to hit our newsfeeds. We watched as Ahmaud Arbery, a young black man jogging near his home, was hunted down and lynched by his neighbors….
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Opinion Jews came to America to escape darkness. For African Americans, America was darkness.
This weekend, I marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. To the left, through the thick cables and ropes of the bridge, I could see the Statue of Liberty, clear and strong. My grandmother had learned the Emma Lazarus poem by heart when she was a child, so I memorized it, too, and now the words came…
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Opinion It’s time for the Conference of Presidents to kick out Mort Klein
Louis Brandeis, the first Jew to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, embodied the image of the liberal moderate so famously taken to task in Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” On race, Justice Brandeis usually sided with progress but was not particularly outspoken in favor of racial justice and equality….
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Opinion I’m so tired of white guilt
There was light from fires in the streets. Noise from the clanging of trash cans and sirens was in the background when I called my father this week. “Son, you remember the 1968 Washington DC riots,” he said. I do. But not everyone does. For some, the protests this week, like the racism they oppose,…
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Opinion ‘It’s on us.’ Jewish clergy weigh in on the role of Jews in the aftermath of George Floyd
The country has been reeling since the murder of George Floyd in police custody nearly two weeks ago. Citizens have taken to the streets in protest and come up against heavily armed police. Dozens of Jewish organizations have added their voices to those condemning racist violence against black communities and standing in solidarity with demonstrators….
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Opinion Editorial | After months of silence, a scream
Last April my daughter joined a “Day of Silence” to protest the discrimination LGBTQ students face in schools. It’s a national thing, organized at her middle school by the Gender-Sexuality Alliance whose meetings she goes to most Fridays. The kids wore special black T-shirts and tried not to talk all day. Then — and this…
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Opinion Memo to the NYT: Black lives aren’t up for debate
Consider two articles that the venerable New York Times published in 1939, in the final months before the formal outbreak of World War II. In May 1939, the M.S. St. Louis set sail from Hamburg, Germany, for Havana, Cuba, carrying 937 passengers, nearly all of them Jewish refugees. When the Cuban government refused to admit…
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Opinion Jews stand for debate- which means backing the NYT
Jews believe in argument. Even Jews who have never looked at a page of Talmud know that debate is part of our DNA. Our greatest thinkers were our best arguers. Our most precious inheritance is that tradition of argument. This isn’t something to be hoarded. On the contrary, it is something that needs to be…
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Opinion Jewish nonprofits: Put ego aside and embrace the merger!
Recently, the leader of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, termed the merging of parts of his organization with other Jewish denominations “a real possibility.” Last week, we learned that two iconic Reform temples in Brooklyn are considering a merger. The rest of the Jewish community should take notice. There are over 10,000…
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Opinion I’m a Jewish conservative. We’re also furious about George Floyd’s murder.
I’m a Jewish conservative. And I’m furious about George Floyd’s murder. Not just Floyd’s murder, either. Despite what people think about those of us who don’t identify as “progressive,” we recognize that George Floyd’s murder wasn’t an isolated incident but rather part of something much bigger that we really need to change. This was not…
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Opinion Why do Jews recognize the racism of George Floyd’s murder but not Iyad Hallaq’s?
On Saturday, when the U.S. was already engulfed in protests over the brutal murder of George Floyd, Iyad Hallaq, a 32-year-old Palestinian with special needs was shot and killed by Israeli border police in Jerusalem’s Wadi Joz neighborhood. The officer who shot him claimed he believed Hallaq was holding a gun. They chased him. Hallaq,…
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