Opinion

• Opinion

  What Israel’s independence cost my family

  My mother’s grandfather, Mahmoud, was a wealthy landowner in the village of Iraq Suwaydan, which used to be 17 miles north of Gaza. It was destroyed in 1948, during Operation Yoav, and my great-grandfather lost everything. He became one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees that flooded into Gaza as a result of the…

  By Muhammad Shehada

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Israelis and Palestinians mourn our losses together on Yom Hazikaron

  Fighting dangerous pathogens that rip through societies is not new to joint Israeli-Palestinian organizations like the Parents Circle-Families Forum and Combatants for Peace. Fear, hatred, and dehumanization, like viruses, are invisible. They are often asymptomatic in many and lead to senseless fatalities in others. COVID-19 and fear, hatred and dehumanization know no borders, religion or…

  By Shiri Ourian Apr 26, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why are Jewish intellectual sexual predators being honored in a new book?

  Should admitted, unrepentant sexual predators who happen to be Jewish intellectuals be accepted by the Jewish community as if they had committed no offenses? That is the question raised by the disturbing inclusion of three admitted Jewish sex abusers in a soon-to-be-released book, “The New Jewish Canon,” by Yehuda Kurtzer and Claire E. Sufrin. According…

  By Shulamit Magnus and Rafael Medoff Apr 25, 2020 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Gavin Newsom isn’t waffling on Israel — he’s voicing sensible ideas in an era of outrage

  

• Dan Perry An abominable new Israeli law is a death warrant for democracy

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  ‘Here we sit. In limbo.’ A day in the life of a small business owner during a pandemic.

  I’m up by 6:00 am, but my husband Daniel has already been up for hours. He gets up between 2:00 and 4:00 am to research financial markets and potential investments. We take that first hour before the kids stir to check in on the day. What has to happen? Who is working in the cidery…

  By Talia Haykin Apr 24, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Hell, no, we shouldn’t have camp! It would betray all our values.

  What will happen to camp this summer? Ever since the world started shutting down in response to the rise of coronavirus, this has been a nagging question across the Jewish community. Camps have understandably been reluctant to make any decisions one way or another, and not just due to the desperate hope of emerging from…

  By Josh Satok Apr 24, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Letter | The Palestinian people are victims of their own leaders

  Dear Editor, I read Kefah Abukhdeir’s recent article “Fauda is our reality. We tried to tell you – but you called us anti-Semites.” Actually, I consider Ms. Abukhdeir and her family victims of the Palestinian leaders and the leaders of the broader Arab world. Had the Arab leaders not gone to war in the 1940s,…

  By Toby F. Block Apr 23, 2020 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  The dreadful loneliness of Ramadan during coronavirus

  Every year, I await Ramadan’s colorful yet reverent atmosphere and touching spirituality. Islam’s holiest month has always been a time of kindness, self-reflection, and communal solidarity. Daytime would be filled with worship, reciting Quran, contemplation and charitable work. In my family, iftar, the breaking of fast, always meant gatherings of relatives and friends for a…

  By Muhammad Shehada Apr 22, 2020 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Want to protest COVID safety measures? Waive your right to medical care

  Throughout my career as a physician and public health administrator, I experienced how different countries responded to a global public health crisis. Some of these countries demonstrated enormous political will to address the AIDS pandemic, while others did not. In the absence of coordinated political efforts, death tolls climbed and what’s known as “illness burden”…

  By Dina Rosen Apr 22, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Fauda is our reality. We tried to tell you – but you called us anti-Semites.

  We used to tell you that Israelis were hiding among us, learning our habits, speaking our language, insinuating themselves into our lives so they could watch our every move. You called us anti-Semites. Now you love Fauda. The series, the third season of which recently went live on Netflix, is all about mista’arvim, Israeli intelligence…

  By Kefah Abukhdeir Apr 22, 2020 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Letter | Summer camp can wait this year

  Dear editor: I’m writing in response to Jodi Rudoren’s OpEd, “Let There Be Camp — please!,” which filled my Facebook feed on Sunday. When I write a piece that’s shared like that, I know that I’ve struck a nerve and this piece definitely did with all of the parents who are holding out hope that…

  By Gabrielle Kaplan-Mayer Apr 21, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Infertility is a Jewish issue. It’s time the community recognized it.

  It feels like a weird time to be talking about infertility, especially here in New York City, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, with tens of thousands of people hospitalized and dying from the virus, not to mention the psychological effects the pandemic and self-isolation will have on our population here and around the world….

  By Amy Klein Apr 21, 2020 | 3 min read