Opinion

• Opinion

  The Idea That Christian Love For Jews Is About Rapture Is A Paranoid Conspiracy Theory

  'There is simply no evidence suggesting that large numbers of Christians harbor a terrifying desire for Jesus to slaughter innocent people'

  By Jarvis Best

  6 min read
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  Opinion

  New York And Bill DeBlasio Are Working Hard To Fight Anti-Semitism. I’m The Proof.

  Dear Editor, In her recent op-ed, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt was right to express outrage over the escalation of anti-Semitism directed at Orthodox Jews. The examples of prejudice and discrimination she cites should disturb all New Yorkers who care about religious freedom and pluralistic democracy. The spate of anti-Jewish hate crimes over the past two years is…

  By Deborah Lauter Sep 9, 2019 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  How High Does The Body Count Have To Get Before Congress Shuts Down 8chan?

  2019 will be remembered as a year of mass shooters targeting minorities. This year alone, Muslims, Jews, and Latinos were targeted by murderers in El Paso, Poway, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Though they targeted different groups in different places, these three men had something in common: 8chan. At its core, 8chan, an image-based message-board, is…

  By Oren Segal Sep 9, 2019 | 6 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman A billionaire Gen Z influencer is reinventing philanthropy — with this South African rabbi’s help

  

• Nora Berman Is Netflix’s new show the most Jewish cartoon ever?

  

• Dan Perry Israel’s strike in Qatar: An audacious bid for victory, or just another foolhardy provocation?

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s attack on George Soros is ludicrous. It also endangers Jews (and everyone else)

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Don’t Believe The Haters. Israeli Democracy Is Still Robust.

  The tempest over Israel’s travel ban on two congresswomen and the year-long roller coaster of back-to-back elections has unleashed an avalanche of misplaced condemnations and hand-wringing about the health of the country’s democracy. Yet democratic life in Israel remains remarkably strong and resilient. For starters, democratic and liberal norms continue to predominate. Voter turnout, contestation,…

  By Scott Lasensky Sep 6, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  This Elul, It’s Time To Do Teshuva For American Racism

  When I arrived at the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana earlier this summer, a staff member handed me a card with a photo of a statue of a young girl wearing a yellow dress. A quote on the back of the card explained that before this girl, Carlyle Stewart, was freed at the age of seven,…

  By George Altshuler Sep 4, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Time To Admit It: The U.S. And Israel No Longer Have Shared Values

  I’ve always believed that the friendship between Israel and the United States is based on deep, shared values between their respective peoples. It’s a thought that has offered me some comfort as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Trump seem so committed to proving me wrong. The two seem to labor tirelessly to make…

  By Dany Bahar Sep 4, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  We Muslims Must Fight Anti-Semitism In Our Own Communities

  Anti-Semitic incidents are on the rise across the country. Last week alone, three Orthodox Jews were attacked in Brooklyn in vicious hate crimes, just the most recent attacks in a year that saw two synagogue shootings. From spray-painted swastikas to anti-Semitic messages written in the sand on beaches to the attacks in Crown Heights to…

  By Zaid Jilani Sep 4, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Bloomberg’s False Anti-Semitism Smear Proves The Danger Of Cancel Culture

  This morning, news emerged that a Trump Labor Department official had lost his job just 18 days into it, after what the reporter called “anti-Semitic Facebook posts” came to light. Leif Olson, who started at the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division on Aug. 12, was accused by Bloomberg News of writing on Facebook that…

  By Cathy Young Sep 3, 2019 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Fighting BDS Isn’t Courageous. It’s Authoritarian.

  In recent attack ads against the nonviolent, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, politician Stav Shaffir alleged that the group and its work were just like Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump. In an article and online video, she claimed the BDS movement represents “anti-progressive” politics “based on fear and isolation.” As a member of the…

  By Yuli Novak Sep 3, 2019 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  This Rosh Hashanna, Jews Must Commit To Ending Climate Change

  You may have heard this one: The story is told of the melamed, the wise schoolteacher, who was walking along the back streets of Chelm one dark night when he was accosted by a masked bandit with a large pistol. “Your money or your life!” the bandit said. “Take my life,” the melamed replied. “I’m…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 3, 2019 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  A Lot More Jews Are Anti-Zionists Than You Think

  Nineteen out of twenty American Jews are Zionists. At least, that’s the perception you would get if you read the breathless coverage of a recent Gallup poll about American Jewish political attitudes. The fact that the poll found that 95% of American Jews “have favorable views of Israel” was cited by a variety of commentators…

  By Joel Swanson Aug 30, 2019 | 8 min read