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
Israel calls all Palestinian resistance ‘terrorism’. That’s not just racist – it’s dangerous.
On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights released a list of companies with ties to the settlements. We knew we didn’t have to wait long to hear the list besmirched with that go-to word when it comes to any form of Palestinian resistance, however nonviolent: terrorism. We Palestinians are used to being…
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Opinion Trump just committed the worst assault on democracy of his presidency
Just as the “perfect” phone call came the very day after the release of the Mueller report, President Trump followed up his Senate acquittal with another invitation to worry over the future of the Republic. Don’t let impeachment fatigue or images of lawyers pushing papers fool you: The uproar at the Justice Department is a…
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Opinion How an anti-Semitic staple about Jewish power captured the left
In two weeks, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee will host its annual confab, the AIPAC Policy Conference. As one of the largest pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the United States, surpassed only by Christians United for Israel, AIPAC often works as a stand-in for perceptions of American Jewish power. In the decade that I worked…
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Opinion George Steiner’s profound criticism of Zionism will haunt us forever
Last week, on February 3, George Steiner, literary critic, author, and philosopher passed away at the age of 90. While Steiner will undoubtedly be remembered internationally for a whole array of achievements, in my own mind, Steiner will live on forever as the man who posed the greatest and most profound critique of Zionism. Steiner’s…
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Opinion Letter | Sanders ignores anti-Semitism for his own political ambition
Dear Editor: I have read Joel Swanson’s recent pieces in the Forward speculating why he thinks Sen. Bernie Sanders scares the beejesus out of American Jews. Until now, I only knew Swanson as a scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history, especially of a fine analysis of Bernard Lazare, who made the transition from what might…
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Opinion The impeachment process was win-win
On Wednesday afternoon, our national crisis came to an end as the impeachment saga finally drew to a close. It ended, as predicted, with the acquittal of President Trump in the Senate, with the votes split nearly along party lines. Republicans are boasting that the verdict is vindication for the President, and that these charges…
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Opinion The number of actual anti-Semites is low, so why are so many Jews being attacked?
At a terribly disturbing time for American Jews, with the greatest anti-Semitic violence and incidents experienced by the community in decades and questions being raised about its fundamental security after deadly attacks in Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City and a brutal stabbing in Monsey, there is a piece of good news among the bad. ADL recently…
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Opinion American Jews need a savior. It’s not Bernie Sanders.
So, it could really be Bernie. Amidst the wreckage of Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont, looks ensconced in the catbird seat. He is seemingly ahead in the Hawkeye popular vote, and poised for a win in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, the ostensible front runner, Vice President Joe Biden, seems to be going…
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Opinion Are anti-Semitism fears stopping Jewish Dems from supporting Bernie Sanders?
Perhaps nothing represents the strange duality of the place of Jews in the United States in 2020 than the fact that a Jew may well have won the Iowa Democratic caucuses — and he did it with very little support from actual Jewish voters. Though the massive debacle that was the caucuses means we don’t…
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Opinion Anti-Semitism’s rise in Europe is more than a far left, far right problem
Whether anti-Semitism stems more so from the far-right, far-left, or Muslim extremism remains a matter of contentious debate. Germany’s interior ministry says the far-right is responsible for 90% of anti-Semitic hate crimes in that country. The monitoring organization RIAS Berlin paints more of a mixed picture. And now the Institute for Zionist Strategies—a not-particularly-prestigious right-wing…
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Opinion Don’t let the hour go by
I was sitting on our couch, trying to come up with a tidbit to share on Shabbat morning. It had to be short, since I wanted to leave most of the speaking time for our scholar-in-residence, Dr. Susannah Heschel. (Yes, she was amazing. Yes, your shul should bring her.) I flipped through our copy of…
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