Opinion

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  Have Your Say | Should Jeffrey Epstein Get A Jewish Burial?

  Have Your Say is your chance to tell us what you think. Comment below or on Facebook and let us know what you think about the question posed in the headline.

  By Forward Staff

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Protest Is A Sacred Jewish Practice

  Despite growing up to become a rabbi, I don’t remember much about my Hebrew School days. I remember being excited to learn the letters, and being bored reading about some people called “Babylonians” in a book that smelled like a basement. One thing I do remember quite clearly, however, is a trip I took with…

  By Michael Rothbaum Aug 14, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What The Israeli And American Left Can Learn From Each Other

  The right-wing in Israel has largely dominated politics for nearly 20 years. But I’m going to say something shocking here: Israeli voters are not right wing; Israeli Jews are. Nearly all Israeli Jews vote for Jewish/Zionist parties, while the vast majority of Israeli Arabs vote for Arab/non-Zionist parties. It’s from those Jewish/Zionist parties that the…

  By Alec Ewig Aug 14, 2019 | 5 min read

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• Jay Michaelson I supported Israel’s actions in Gaza in October 2023 — not anymore

  

• Rob Eshman The staggering hypocrisy behind Trump’s deal to free the last living American hostage

  

• Nora Berman How the Oct. 7 aftermath splintered the New York Dyke March

  

• Dan Perry It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump

  

• Emily Tamkin This week proved it: Trump’s approach to antisemitism at Columbia is horribly ineffective

  

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  Opinion

  ‘#JewsAgainstICE’ Is Transforming The Jewish Community, Returning Us To Our Diasporic Roots

  This year, Jews across the United States marked the fast day of Tisha B’Av — the saddest day on the Jewish calendar which commemorates the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem — by protesting against a modern-day example of the destruction, uprooting, and banishment of communities: the detention and deportation of immigrants by US Immigration…

  By Joel Swanson Aug 12, 2019 | 7 min read
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  Opinion

  AIPAC Took 41 Democrats To Israel – And They Applauded Netanyahu

  Forty-one Democratic House members were in Israel last week on a trip led by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, working hard to highlight their unified support for their host country. Rejecting ongoing Republican attacks accusing Democrats of being insufficiently pro-Israel, Hoyer said: “The central reality is that there is extraordinary unity on issues that Israel is…

  By Richard M. Goldwasser Aug 12, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Young Jews Protesting Trump’s Camps Remind The Establishment What Jewish History Stands For.

  Historical moments of reckoning have a way of galvanizing American Jewry. Mass migration, dislocation, pogroms, persecution and the First World War created new institutions of Jewish life in America that rescued and integrated nearly three million Jews into the unique discourse of a participatory American republican democracy. The Zionist project and then the rehabilitation of…

  By Andy Bachman Aug 12, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Epstein’s Case Deserves An Investigation, Not Conspiracy Theories

  When the news that Jeffrey Epstein had died of suicide arrived on Saturday morning, it was not a question of whether conspiracy theories would quickly take hold, but of which ones. Epstein, the disgraced financier accused of sex trafficking underage girls, was connected to an ungodly number of elite circles: Wall Street, highly-ranked academic institutions,…

  By Abe Silberstein Aug 12, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Please Don’t Politicize Dvir Sorek’s Murder. His Final Act Was One Of Peace.

  If history is any guide, in the coming weeks, the horrifying murder of Dvir Sorek in a West Bank terror attack will be weaponized by right-wing Israeli politicians. His death will be used as ammunition for those seeking to demonize the Palestinian people and to yet again quash any movement toward peace. Make no mistake:…

  By Emma Goldberg Aug 9, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Remembering the slaves who built Wall Street: A summer ‘azkore’ on Tisha B’av

  Unlike for the rest of the world, summer is when Jews mourn — the destruction of our last ancient Temple, our subsequent diaspora, and our most recent devastating near-ruin. It is also the season when African Americans commemorate the Juneteenth anniversary of their freedom on these shores — and slavery’s catastrophic legacy. There’s a place…

  By Chana Pollack Aug 9, 2019 | 8 min read
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  Opinion

  As An Orthodox Jew, I Pray To Return To Jerusalem. As An American, I Feel At Home.

  The Book of Lamentations, read at synagogues this Saturday evening in observance of the fast of Tisha B’Av, concludes with the prayer, “Bring us back, O Lord, and we will return to you.” In general, the traditional framing of the Jewish diaspora experience depicts a people in exile, living as foreigners, and yearning to return…

  By Avraham Bronstein Aug 8, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s The Jewish Day Of Mourning. But In Pittsburgh, We Never Stopped.

  It’s the time of year that for one day, the ninth of Av, Jews think about being displaced and exiled. We think of what was lost with the destruction of two Temples, and our historical exile from Jerusalem. This year, I am in the unenviable position of feeling this uprooted aspect of Jewish history in…

  By Beth Kissileff Aug 8, 2019 | 3 min read