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
Why are liberal Jewish organizations undermining religious liberty?
What sort of groups would you expect to file a Supreme Court brief arguing that laws providing exemptions for Sabbath observant workers are unconstitutional? Certainly not organizations that represent the interests of the American Jewish community. Unfortunately, the groups who recently filed a brief positively citing that argument included the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council…
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Opinion Letter | America’s JCCs are neither failing nor irrelevant
Dear Editor, The May 2 column by Joel Swanson, “America’s Jewish institutions were failing: Coronavirus hastened their demise,” offered some fascinating — but also highly inaccurate — views on how American Jewish communal life is changing. Swanson quoted me on the painful economic hit North America’s 164 JCCs have taken during the pandemic, but then…
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Opinion Israel is ready to reopen. I’m not.
Last night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an easing up of restrictions. No longer confined to 100 meters, we can go out for the first time in ages. National parks are reopening and even malls will open later in the week. Nearly one in four Israelis are unemployed, up from a record low of…
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Opinion I’m a statistician. Closing camp because of corona is a huge mistake
When the Reform movement announced that it would be shutting its camps for the summer, a rabbi friend broadcast on Facebook that he thought the decision, while regrettable, was nevertheless “prudent.” I disagree. A considered, well thought out decision has to think through both risks and rewards. It must grapple not just with possibilities but…
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Opinion American Jews: You are desperately needed in the fight against annexation.
The most serious setback to peace in the Middle East has taken place under the cloud of the coronavirus and the internal Israeli political scene. A chance, however, still exists for a unified Arab coalition with action by American Jews to create a firewall that will help preserve a chance for Israeli-Palestinian peace. As part…
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Opinion COVID exposed America as a failed state. How can I honor the military oath I swore?
“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same…_” I spoke these words for the first time in the summer of 1997 when I entered basic training at the United States…
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Opinion Anne Frank is being called a ‘Becky’. But here’s what that tweet got right
Last week, a tweet about Anne Frank — the beloved memoirist of “The Diary of Anne Frank” through which most American children learn about the Holocaust — went viral. The tweet referred to Anne Frank as a “Becky” and lamented the lack of education in America about genocides besides the Holocaust. A “Becky” is a…
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Opinion Eulogy | ‘He was always chopping vegetables:’ Remembering Fred Pressman
Fred Pressman was a giant in the Jewish world. A giant you probably never heard of. He didn’t hold power positions in major organizations, didn’t donate millions of dollars to causes. He was a giant wisp of a man, an aging hippie in saggy jeans with a stringy gray ponytail under a Bukharan kippah, a…
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Opinion America’s Jewish institutions were failing. Coronavirus hastened their demise.
Borrowing from Tolstoy, one might say that every economic boomtime is alike in its happiness, while every economic crisis is unique in the misery it brings. And the particular economic crisis facing the United States in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which economists fear could culminate in the worst economic downturn since the Great…
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Opinion We canceled camp. We’re crying, too.
I let myself cry today. For weeks during the shelter in place, I’ve been emotionally stuck in turmoil. You see, I’m an overnight Jewish camp director. This was to be my eighth summer on staff at Camp Newman and my 16th overall at Jewish camp. On May 31, we were to begin training staff for…
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Opinion What’s Birthright doing during the pandemic? Glad you asked!
Twenty years ago, Birthright Israel was just a dream. Its goal was to combat the danger of a declining Jewish future and its founders hoped that if we could simply bring young diaspora Jews to Israel — to let them see and feel the land — that those young men and women would fall in…
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