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
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Opinion
AOC, I Love You. Jeremy Corbyn Is No Ally.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s rapid-fire burst on the political scene was exhilarating for me. As she spoke with verve of overlooked women and marginalized groups, I felt drawn to her charm in a visceral way. I agreed with some of her policy proposals, and diverged from her on others. But all in all, you can bet…
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Opinion Israeli Rabbis Are Using DNA Testing To Police Civil Rights. This Shouldn’t Shock You.
On Tuesday, Judy Maltz reported in Haaretz that the Israeli Rabbinate, which controls conversion, marriage and divorce in Israel, is using DNA testing to verify a person’s Jewishness. Since a person who isn’t Jewish can’t marry a Jew in Israel, which has no civil marriage, the rabbinate is using the DNA test to deny people…
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Opinion BDS Is Linked To Terrorists. Just As You Suspected.
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…
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Opinion Why Does The World Hate Haredi Jews?
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…
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Opinion Seeking To Help Israel, American Jewish Institutions Sold Us Out
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…
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Opinion Will Cory Booker’s Flip-Flopping On Israel Hurt Him In 2020?
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…
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Opinion The Hypocrisy Of Lee Zeldin’s Attack Against Ilhan Omar
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…
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Opinion Israeli Immigrants From India Celebrate Group Bat Mitzvah And Other Good News For The Jews This Week
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…
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Opinion Inspiring Women | Taking On Tech With 7 Children
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…
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Opinion Sanders And Omar Are Right On Venezuela. Regime Change Is How We Got Iraq.
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,…
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Letters Sorry, Liberals: You Don’t Have A Constitutional Right To Boycott Israel.
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…
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