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
Remembering the slaves who built Wall Street: A summer ‘azkore’ on Tisha B’av
Unlike for the rest of the world, summer is when Jews mourn — the destruction of our last ancient Temple, our subsequent diaspora, and our most recent devastating near-ruin. It is also the season when African Americans commemorate the Juneteenth anniversary of their freedom on these shores — and slavery’s catastrophic legacy. There’s a place…
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Opinion As An Orthodox Jew, I Pray To Return To Jerusalem. As An American, I Feel At Home.
The Book of Lamentations, read at synagogues this Saturday evening in observance of the fast of Tisha B’Av, concludes with the prayer, “Bring us back, O Lord, and we will return to you.” In general, the traditional framing of the Jewish diaspora experience depicts a people in exile, living as foreigners, and yearning to return…
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Opinion It’s The Jewish Day Of Mourning. But In Pittsburgh, We Never Stopped.
It’s the time of year that for one day, the ninth of Av, Jews think about being displaced and exiled. We think of what was lost with the destruction of two Temples, and our historical exile from Jerusalem. This year, I am in the unenviable position of feeling this uprooted aspect of Jewish history in…
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Opinion I’m An Orthodox Rabbi. Too Many People Are Using Religion To Cloak Their Homophobia.
Recently, a lot of people have been asking me for my thoughts on Torah versus the LGBT community. The reality is that mainstream Orthodoxy will not permit a Rabbi to officiate a marriage for a gay couple, grant Rabbinical ordination to an openly gay man, or claim that Halacha is wrong. Rather, “Kabbolos Ol” applies…
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Opinion Bad Holocaust Analogies Ironically Show The Stunning Success Of Holocaust Education
When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to detention centers for asylum seekers in the U.S. as “concentration camps”, a controversy rightfully erupted. Some decried AOC for trivializing the Holocaust; others defended her statement as a legitimate image to draw attention to suffering and inhumanity. Others argued the fine points of terminology (she said “concentration camps,” not…
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Opinion This Tisha B’Av, We Mourn Injustice In Israel – And Commit To The Fight To End It.
Many progressive Jews struggle with whether Tisha B’av still has resonance when Judaism has evolved so far beyond Temple service. We wonder whether a full day of mourning for Jewish destruction and exile is still called for when we have a sovereign State of Israel and the accompanying reality of national power. But the sages…
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Opinion Social Media Is The New Frontier Of Anti-Semitism
The 892 anti-Semitic incidents recorded by Britain’s Community Security Trust (CST) between January and June of this year set another unfortunate record. A rise of 10% compared to the same period in 2018, the uptick indicates not only that anti-Semitism in Britain is becoming evermore pervasive, but also that inside the Jewish community there is…
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Opinion The Dayton Murderer Is Proof We Need To Take Left-Wing Violence Seriously
Amidst the disturbing trend of political conflict in the United States escalating into violence, it has been a staple of conventional wisdom that the real danger comes almost entirely from the far right. Thus, after journalist Andy Ngo was beaten up by activists from the militant left-wing “Antifascist” movement at a protest in late June,…
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Opinion White nationalist terrorism only ends when we end it. Will you do your part?
The ‘replacement’ conspiracy theory underlies not only domestic terrorism but also immigration policy.
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Opinion It’s Time To Call Trump And His Team By Their True Name: Idolators.
On July 25th, Attorney General William Barr directed the federal Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the death penalty. The next day, former White House counsel and witness in Nixon’s impeachment trial John Dean posted a tweet critical of Barr. He wrote that Barr must be an “Old Testament kind of guy” to do such a…
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Opinion Jewish Education Must Include Sexual Ethics
The Jewish Theological Seminary, one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, recently dismissed a Title IX sexual assault complaint on the grounds that the student’s misconduct happened before he was a student there. It may be that the Title IX process does not cover the sexual assault in this case. But JTS’s…
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In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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