Opinion

• 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…

  By Rabbi Michael Rothbaum

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Orthodox Jews love Trump, right? Actually, it’s complicated

  American Orthodox Jewry is often viewed as a single, undifferentiated mass, with little or no appreciation of the extent of the diversity within the group. Conventional wisdom has it that Orthodox Jews are conservatives who vote Republican, while the rest of U.S. Jewry leans strongly Democratic and Liberal. But it turns out, this is a…

  By Mark Trencher Feb 3, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  How can we trust the media when they lie about our community?

  We’re living in an age where public trust in the media is at an all-time low. Just 21% of Americans say they have “a lot of trust in the information from national news organizations.” In my community, it’s probably much lower. Routinely, Orthodox and haredi Jews are forced to read news reports about us that…

  By Eli Steinberg Jan 30, 2020 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz As editor-in-chief, I’m finding my way Forward (and back)

  

• Rob Eshman A two-hour State of the Union with zero vision for Gaza or Iran

  

• Dan Perry You could be imprisoned for praying at the Western Wall — and Bibi isn’t stopping it

  

• Emily Tamkin We’re losing the fight against antisemitism. Here’s how to turn the tide

  

• Jay Michaelson We are talking past one another on Zionism

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Bernie Sanders’ shocking hypocrisy

  In January of 2019, when Kamala Harris officially announced the launch of her Presidential campaign, she was immediately met with a scathing meme: “Kamala is a cop”. Her attackers’ point was that Harris’s previous work as a prosecutor in California, in San Francisco and as State Attorney General, was disqualifying. Harris had many attackers, but…

  By Marcus Johnson Jan 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Pro-Israel Attacks Against Sanders Show How Much He’s Resonating

  This past week, the Super PAC Democratic Majority for Israel began running ads in Iowa attacking Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as polls showed him tied with Joe Biden in the lead for the Iowa Democratic caucus. The group, which has said it is “deeply disturbing” that Sanders has “surrogates and endorsers who hate Israel,…

  By Joel Swanson Jan 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  There actually is an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal that’s working – in Gaza

  On Tuesday, Donald Trump rolled out a historic agreement between the United States and Israel. For the first time in the history of the peace process, the United States debuted an end-of-claims accord that offered the Israelis unprecedented concessions, including the right to annex 30% of the West Bank. By contrast, the U.S. has presented…

  By Carmiel Arbit Jan 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump’s peace plan is a crossroads. The next move belongs to Gantz.

  In 2003, George W. Bush presented Israel with a roadmap. In 2020, Donald Trump presented Israel with a crossroads. Trump’s plan is not a sign pointing forward but a milestone marking two different directions: one points to a one-state dystopia, and the other to a two-state reality on terms favorable to Israel; one points to…

  By Eylon A. Levy Jan 30, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The real thing that’s missing from Trump’s peace plan

  In years of relentless vitriol attacking my coverage, myself and my family while I was Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, the most distressing was a short text from the spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization on Israel’s Memorial Day in 2015. “Your lack of empathy for Palestinians is unbelievable,” it said. At…

  By Jodi Rudoren Jan 29, 2020 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Let’s call Trump’s plan what it is: Oslo C

  President Donald Trump went to great lengths on Tuesday to present his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan — his “deal of the century” — as novel and even groundbreaking. But if you take a closer look, you’ll notice that we’ve seen much of it before. It has considerable overlap with plans laid out by three previous U.S….

  By Gilead Sher Jan 29, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Netanyahu traded Israel’s independence for the ‘deal of the century’

  The proposals laid out by President Trump yesterday seemingly cement “unshakeable, unbreakable” U.S. support for Israel by offering the Israeli government unconditional American support for immediate annexation of land in the West Bank, while conditioning and constraining Palestinian self-determination to meet any and all Israeli security needs. While formally presented as a basis for negotiations,…

  By Tamara Cofman Wittes Jan 29, 2020 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why are we so obsessed with John Demjanjuk?

  On Tuesday, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a photo of Sobibor guards that purports to reveal Nazi collaborator John Demjanjuk in a guard uniform at the Sobibor Death Camp. German historian Martin Clippers said the museum used the German police to conduct a biometric examination to affirm it was Demjanjuk. I have seen…

  By Tom Teicholz Jan 29, 2020 | 5 min read