Opinion

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  Have Your Say | What Are You Atoning For This Yom Kippur?

  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. We’ll incorporate your answers in a story later in the week!

  By Forward Staff

  < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Stop Being So Triggered. This Yom Kippur, Commit To Ending The Outrage

  There are, in our world, forces of light and forces of darkness. We want to stand with one and against the other. But is that where we want to be standing on Yom Kippur? It is a perennial question, but more cutting today. Many of us took the post-Cold War liberal consensus, in which most…

  By Yehudah Mirsky Oct 7, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  What Trump’s Withdrawal From Syria Means For The Kurds – And For Israel

  There are three basic reasons why, on Sunday night, the Trump administration announced that US armed forces are abandoning the Kurds of northeast Syria. The reasons reflect brutal logic. That doesn’t make the outcome any more attractive or palatable. First, President Trump is consistent, albeit with frequent zigzags, about keeping American forces out of conflicts…

  By Yossi Alpher Oct 7, 2019 | 3 min read

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The Latest

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  Opinion

  Forget Impeachment. Congress Should Choose A Joint Resolution Of Censure Instead

  The revelation that Donald Trump withheld American foreign aid to force the president of the Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden has finally broken the impeachment logjam. We now appear to be moving towards impeachment in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives charging the President with “high crimes and misdemeanors” for grossly abusing the…

  By Burt Neuborne Oct 7, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Of Course Rabbis Should Preach Politics. Divorcing Religion From Politics Is A Christian Ideal.

  This time of year, during the High Holidays, there are a few things that non-Orthodox American Jews can reliably depend upon. In the days leading up to Yom Kippur, lots of us will complain about having to go without food for a day, and we’ll make jokes about Jews being the people “chosen to suffer.”…

  By Joel Swanson Oct 7, 2019 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  The Internet Sins We’ll Atone For This Yom Kippur

  On Yom Kippur, we confess an alphabet of annual sins: Bribe-taking! Bribe-giving! Foolish speech! Lewdness! Lying! Scoffing! It’s a list that has almost completely withstood the test of time. Most people would do well to apologize for blurting things out, passing judgment and “deceiving a fellowman.” And, more darkly, some people should seriously consider repentance…

  By Jenny Singer Oct 7, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  On Yom Kippur, My Eating Disorder Haunts Me

  Is Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement, or the day of Post-Traumatic Stress? For me, a “recovered” anorexic, it’s both. Liturgically, Yom Kippur is powerful, a day characterized by introspection, asking forgiveness, profound considerations about how to right wrongs and improve oneself. It makes sense it’s a day of self-denial, including 25 hours without food….

  By Jenn Director Knudsen Oct 7, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  For God’s Sake, Stop Preaching Politics From The Pulpit!

  America’s partisan divide seems to have reached a new low. Whatever side of the political aisle each of us is on, we can all agree that this is true. Politics are harming relationships to an unprecedented extent, dividing families to the point that they don’t spend holidays together anymore. A just-published study of the emotional…

  By Yaakov Menken Oct 4, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Our Job As Jews Is Not To Watch Politics As Sport. It’s To Bring Jewish Values Into The Public Sphere

  When reports of the White House whistleblower hit the press in September, a colleague joked on Facebook that all us rabbis would have to rewrite our High Holiday sermons. I panicked; I didn’t realize it was a joke. But as my heart rate settled back to normal, I realized the joke was just another reminder…

  By Michael Rothbaum Oct 3, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  With Anti-Semitic Attack On ‘Shifty’ Foe, Trump Shows Off The Mechanism Of His Racism

  On Wednesday, Donald Trump again referred to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff as “shifty Schiff.” If you think that sounds vaguely anti-Semitic, you’re right. And it’s likely only the beginning. As the impeachment inquiry escalates, Trump’s anti-Semitic rhetoric probably will too. It won’t escalate because Trump is any more hostile to Jews than he…

  By Peter Beinart Oct 3, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Your Attempts To ‘Humanize’ Us Palestinians Are Racist

  Being a politically active Palestinian woman on the ground in Palestine, I am acutely familiar with the racism built into the Israeli occupation which denies us our basic freedoms because we belong to the wrong social group. But in recent years, I have come to recognize an erasure of Palestinian identity not only from the…

  By Mariam Barghouti Oct 3, 2019 | 5 min read