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
Letter | There’s A Sweet Side To Haredi Schools That’s Too Often Ignored
Dear Editor, While I don’t dispute the reports of physical abuse at Hassidic boys schools, as a parent whose children have attended similar institutions, I have a different story to tell. True, there were some oddballs, including the strange man whom my son called “the Admor of the Cats” who kept a bottle of cherry…
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Opinion Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael’s Betrayal
The Reform Movement works in partnership with our members and institutions in North America, Israel, and the world to represent our Jewish values in Israel. Engaging actively with the non-profit Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael is one of the many ways we manifest our support. The historic National Institutions of the Zionist Movement, including the World Zionist…
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Opinion Saudi Arabia’s Children Are Learning From Anti-Semitic Textbooks
The House Foreign Affairs Committee made history this past week by taking serious action for the first time ever regarding Saudi Arabia’s anti-Semitic state textbooks. The bipartisan Saudi Educational Transparency and Reform Act (H.R. 554/S. 357) is the product of bipartisan cooperation between U.S. Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and William Keating (D-MA). It would finally…
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Opinion White Men Aren’t Worried About Trump’s Twitter Harassment. That’s Because They’re Rarely His Target.
Kamala Harris recently called for Trump’s Twitter account to be suspended for violating the site’s own terms of service against hate speech. Many in the media mocked her for focusing on what they saw as a trivial issue. However if you’re a member of a marginalized group, subject to the constant onslaught of Twitter harassment,…
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Opinion Democratic Party Split Over Military Aid To Israel
This week at the J Street Conference, Bernie Sanders said he’d tell the Israeli government that, “if you want military aid you’re going to have to fundamentally change your relationship to the people of Gaza.” Pete Buttigieg promised to ensure that American “funding is going to things that are compatible with U.S. objectives and U.S….
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Opinion Letter | Why Ilhan Omar’s Opposition To Sanctions Against Turkey Makes Sense
Dear Editor, Daniella Greenbaum Davis bases her article “Ilhan Omar Just Came Out Against Sanctions. So Why Does She Support BDS?” on two incorrect assumptions, erecting a polemic on quicksand. Rep. Omar’s opposition to sanctions on Turkey might be due to Trump’s erratic nature of sanctioning. As we have seen with so many prior examples,…
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Opinion One Year Since Pittsburgh: The Danger of False Equivalence on Anti-Semitism
On Wednesday, President Trump visited Pittsburgh to attend an energy conference, where Jewish protestors interrupted his speech demanding he “stop endangering Jews.” In the city where a year earlier 11 worshipers were tragically killed in the deadliest attack on Jews in American history at the Tree of Life Synagogue, the protest was met with ridicule…
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Opinion I Used To Think Anti-Semitism Didn’t Exist, Then Pittsburgh Happened
The Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue shooting shook me out of my happy American life in which, I believed, anti-Semitism did not exist. Having emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1989, I believed we had left anti-Semitism behind for good. Did I simply not pay attention or are things really that…
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Opinion One Year Later, Why the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting Matters
One year later, the details of the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh still shock the conscience. Eleven dead at the hands of an armed intruder who said he wanted to “kill Jews” he blamed for bringing “immigrant invaders” into the country. A white supremacist who entered a synagogue on a Sabbath morning with the intent to…
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Opinion As a Gay Jew, Pittsburgh and Pulse are Two Pieces of One Puzzle
I’ll never forget the morning of June 12, 2016, waking up to the horror that 49 people— mostly LGBTQ — had been killed at the Pulse Night Club in Orlando. It reinforced my worst fear that there was a price to pay for being gay. Exactly two weeks later was the first anniversary of the…
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Opinion Stop Calling Pittsburgh ‘The New Anti-Semitism.’ It’s Just The Old One
“Open you Eyes! It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!” These words were distributed on social media by Robert Bowers, the man who would turn his hatred into reality when he forced his way into the Tree of Life synagogue on Shabbat one year ago and murdered 11 Jews….
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