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 | After Poway, My Synagogue Won’t Be Locking Its Doors. We’re Keeping Them Open.
Like anyone who cherishes life and religious freedom, the news of the synagogue shooting in Poway, California a few days ago, was a scary reminder that we live in a nation where the flames of white nationalism burn bright and snuff out lives on an all too regular basis. As the second synagogue shooting in…
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Opinion Trump Has Brought Jews and Muslims Even Closer Together
Do you have a Muslim friend? Do you have a positive view of Muslims? Well, if you answered “yes” to both you are likely Jewish. Those are just some of the findings of the new poll released this week by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding (ISPU) in partnership with Georgetown University’s The Bridge…
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Opinion The Left Needs To Stop Passing The Buck And Address Anti-Semitism
Just over a year ago, I wrote my first article for the Forward defending UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn against the claims of anti-Semitism that have beset the Party under his leadership. I still stand by everything I wrote. But one year later, it’s difficult to describe him as I once did, as the “leader…
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Opinion American Jews Are Teaching Americans To Oppose The Occupation
When I left Youngstown, Ohio for Palestine over two decades ago, serious conversations about Palestinians were fringe, if not taboo. Those who knew anything about the topic didn’t want to discuss it, while others were simply uninformed (I’ll never forget meeting Americans who thought I was from Pakistan). Fast forward to today, Palestine and Israel…
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Opinion How Palestinians Should React When Trump Unveils His Peace Plan
With the Donald Trump/Jared Kushner “peace plan” probably to be released in June, Palestinians are facing a terrible conundrum. To save their national project, they must defend the terms of reference for peace formally agreed upon in the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian Declaration of Principles. But it’s not going to be easy, because the whole point of…
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Opinion Here’s Why We Mourn Terrorism Victims, But Ignore Homicide Victims
Last week, during a gathering of Democratic-leaning activists in Houston, Texas, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was asked, “As President, what would do with the rise of white supremacist violence, to protect our communities?” Sanders invoked his involvement with the Civil Rights Movement to prove his anti-racist bonafides, and was booed by the attendees. Much…
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Opinion The One Thing American Jews Can Do To Help Israel
American Jews are worried about Israel and don’t know how to help. This is the conclusion I’ve drawn as an Israeli activist who’s been presenting for more than a decade at synagogues and fire-side chats in the American Jewish community. I usually talk about the challenges Israel’s democracy is facing: the growing polarization, the use…
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Opinion Being Gay Used To Be Terrifying. Being Jewish was Easy. Now It’s The Opposite.
“Jews aren’t a real minority,” a college classmate once said to me. Statistics say otherwise, but I knew what he meant. Jews are, of course, a minority in America. But for the last few decades, our comfort here hasn’t always made us feel marginalized. Until recently, anti-Semitism in America felt, by and large, like a…
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Opinion While The Left And Right Point Fingers, No One Is Fighting Anti-Semitism
It’s not easy being hated. With every Jewish holiday, we tell our kids the stories — of these people or those — who have tried to kill us all. But they lost! We’re still here! So we rejoice and eat but never, ever forget. But we do forget. It’s easy to forget. We live here,…
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Opinion Why Did Ilhan Omar’s Tweets Trigger More Outrage Than Synagogue Shootings?
This is not how I expected to be a rabbi. Yes, I expected that I would confront anti-Semitic graffiti — graffiti like the kind one of my students found spray-painted on a high school ball field, around the corner from our synagogue. But I didn’t expect to hold three healing services for synagogue murder victims…
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Opinion Only One Thing Can Stop White Supremacy: Solidarity Between Muslims And Jews
On Saturday, a man walked into Chabad of Poway, in California, with a rifle. He murdered one worshipper and injured three others. It was Shabbat. He waited until Jews were gathered to pray on their holiest day, a sabbath that Muslims share. Using their faith as a tool of containment, he began shooting. It was…
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Opinion The Gaza hostage crisis could forever change how American Jews relate to Israel — but it’s not too late to fix that
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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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News Who is Bruce Blakeman, the ‘Almost Orthodox’ Jew running for New York governor?
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