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
Israel’s Democracy Is On The Ballot In The Upcoming Elections
Since Prime Minister Netanyahu chose to have another general election later this year—rather than give Benny Gantz of the Blue and White party a chance to form a governing coalition—all attention has been focused on whether Netanyahu’s gamble will pay off and enable him to form a new government and possibly avoid criminal prosecution for…
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Opinion 13 Democrats Recorded Messages About Israel. Only One Spoke With Courage.
The mantra of Kirsten Gillibrand’s presidential campaign is “Brave Wins.” Yet in her video message to the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum this week, the New York Senator didn’t even mention the word “Palestinian.” That was typical. The 2020 Democratic hopefuls talk a lot about having the courage not just to challenge Donald Trump but…
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Opinion That Kushner Interview Was Not Just Ignorant. It Was Racist.
The current U.S. peace team in the Middle East, guided by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is unprecedented in its open and shameless ignorance. Kushner, Ambassador David Friedman and Special Envoy Jason Greenblatt are arrogant, hypocritical, and racist — and they never exert the slightest effort to hide it. Their inexperience and ignorance is everywhere on…
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Opinion For Me, Being Gay And Zionist Are One And The Same
Thousands of people marched down Fifth Avenue on Sunday with their synagogues and Jewish youth groups. The Celebrate Israel Parade, billed as the largest pro-Israel gathering in the world, was a sea of blue and white flags. Interspersed in that sea were a few dozen rainbow flags with stars of David on them, representing a…
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Opinion Five Things Orthodox Singles Can Do To Combat The ‘Shidduch Crisis’
As a 27 year old, single Orthodox woman living on the Upper West Side, dating is a huge part of my life. As a result, I post a lot of questions and polls on my Instagram stories about dating, mostly because I’ve noticed that my peers have interesting and insightful things to say about dating,…
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Letters Letter | Israel Isn’t Conducting Archaeological Warfare With Muslim History. Rather It’s The Other Way Around.
To the Editor: In their piece “Israel Is Using Archaeology To Erase Non-Jewish History,” Talya Ezrahi and Yonathan Mizrachi attempt to portray Israel as the “bad guy” while ignoring certain crucial realities. First and foremost, the word Jerusalem does not appear in the Koran. Not once. It appears approximately 700 times in the Old Testament…
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Opinion This Was A Week Of Jewish Blessings: Gay, Orthodox Ordination, An 80-Person B’nei Mitzvah, And A Spelling Bee
It was a huge week for world news: Robert Mueller celebrated an eerie last day of school, Israel made plans to hold a Groundhog Day-style election, and in the biggest upset, Guy Ritchie revealed impressive conversational Hebrew skills. Let’s get to the good stuff. Blessings: The world can be a dark and a dangerous place,…
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Opinion New Israeli Elections Could Force Netanyahu To Annex The West Bank. Americans Must Protest.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s failure to assemble a new rightwing coalition government has averted the danger that Israel will soon begin formally annexing parts of the West Bank. But this danger has not disappeared entirely. It has only been postponed. A few days before Israel’s April election, Netanyahu made a bold pledge in an interview on…
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Opinion Humor | I Am a White Male of Modest Accomplishment. I Want to Be Your President.
As a white male who has done some stuff, but not really that much stuff, I am proud to announce that I am running for the Democratic nomination of President of the United States. I dearly love this country, and I believe in the principles set down in the Constitution by our Founding Fathers, especially…
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Opinion Yeshivas Aren’t Teaching Secular Studies. It’s A Shonda For The Jews And Democracy.
Over generations, no matter their religious practice, Jews have shared a commitment to educating their children. In New York, the government has set the standards for that education and taken the legal responsibility to ensure that every child in every school, whether public, private or religious, receives an education that meets those standards. And yet,…
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Opinion The Secret To Jewish Continuity? Hard Conversations About Israel
In an op-ed last week in these pages, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove argued that American Jews focus on Israel as a coping mechanism to distract us from “the endangered condition of our Judaism” caused by assimilation and intermarriage. If we could only allocate our resources to Jewish education and communal institutions and away from the constant…
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