In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
For years, we have heard various claims from Israeli officials positing that the global movement to boycott Israel, known as the BDS Movement, is tainted and controlled by extreme anti-Israel individuals who are unconcerned with the human rights of Palestinians which they claim to champion. However, until this week, no incriminating evidence had ever been…
A recent political ad from Israel compared ultra Orthodox Jews to terrorists. “It makes no difference if one is subjugated by someone with raised weapons,” the ad proclaims, to images of masked, ominous Hamas militiamen with mortars,“or by someone who isn’t prepared to raise a weapon.” Cue shots of a haredi Jew next to a…
Over the past year, many have pointed to the growing divide between American Jews and Israel. But another divide has opened up, and it’s equally distressing: between American Jews and their institutions. Deep in the grip of a realpolitik that prioritizes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrow, protectionist view of what’s good for Israel over…
On Friday, Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey announced he would seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president. For Jewish voters, there is an extraordinary history to consider when it comes to Booker, a former Mayor of Newark and Rhodes Scholar who once offered to tweet a D’var Torah during a snow storm for Jewish…
On Friday, Congressman Lee Zeldin took to Twitter to release a reprehensible, vile, and hateful anti-Semitic voicemail he received from someone who targeted him for his Jewishness. This new VM just came into my office. @IlhanMN, this is just another day in my world as an American Jew in Congress. Would love to know what…
Good news happens every day, it’s just not always reported. Once a week, just before Shabbat, the Forward will highlight stories about Jewish joy, triumph, and pride from Jewish communities in America, Israel and all over the world. If you have a tip for a Jewish news story that brought you joy, please send it…
Sometimes it feels like we are saturated with bad news. We obsess over what’s wrong, who’s wrong and how wrong they are. It can be… debilitating. And yet, there are great people doing great things, people we know and people we don’t. This series will explore women in Israel. You’ll meet women from politics, tech…
In the lead-up to America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, a common technique on the right was to either imply or openly accuse anti-war liberals of being in league with Saddam Hussein. A cheap twist of rhetoric transformed protesting the invasion into endorsing the human rights abuses of Saddam’s regime. If you were against the war,…
Dear Editor: I am a New York attorney who practices in the area of pro-Israel litigation. I am writing in response to “BDS is a Trap for Democrats” by Lara Friedman. In her piece, Friedman argues that with legislation that allows states to penalize companies that boycott Israel, Republicans “are now working to undermine democratic…
At the end of last year, Haaretz reported that Birthright had seen a drop in numbers, of up to 50%. This was shocking news, and seemed to confirm the growing disaffection among young Jews with Israel, emblematized by activists staging walkouts of their Birthright trips. But it turns out that this narrative is far from…
A disturbing new trend has emerged in the political ads of the Israeli elections. Campaign ads seem to be competing over which candidate has killed the most Palestinians. These ads are horrifying. But they also tell us a lot about what — and who — is at stake in the current elections. The election campaign…
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