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
It turns out that Ilhan Omar, who this month became the first Somali American and the first Muslim refugee ever elected to Congress, modulates her views to fit her audience. In other words, she’s a politician. In February of last year, before she launched her congressional campaign, Omar praised the movement to boycott, divest from…
Yeah, Sheryl Sandberg got me too. When the Facebook COO published her feminist manifesto, “Lean In,” I was skeptical of her ability to truly understand the demands and pressures on most working women in America. Surely her fabulous wealth, fame and A-list connections meant she remained blithely unaware of the privilege that status conferred. “To…
On Monday morning, a black Jewish man named Yehudah Webster survived a lynch mob of in Crown Heights. Yes, I said lynch mob. The thugs in question were Chasidic men and Chasidic private security who used their vehicles to block Yehudah from leaving beacuse they were suspicious of him having a Torah scroll. In this…
This week, the New York Times released an explosive report revealing that Facebook hired a far-right consultant group to smear privacy activists. Worse, the consultants used anti-Semitic conspiracy theories connecting the activists to Jewish billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros. Worse still, this anti-Semitic smear-tactic was executed at the behest of Facebook’s Jewish COO Sheryl…
Three of the Democratic Party’s new members of Congress have already made waves for their willingness to criticize Israel: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. After endorsing a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ocasio-Cortez backtracked in response to pressure from the left, refusing to say…
For anyone serious about fighting anti-Semitism, the aftermath of the Pittsburgh shooting that left 11 Jews dead last month was utterly dispiriting. Too many who rushed to comment seemed all too eager to express not only shock and grief about the murder, but to take this opportunity to tout partisan political views. On the left,…
In the wake of the horrific massacre in Pittsburgh that left 11 Jews dead, the Jewish community came together. Groups that are often at odds with each other found unity in mourning the slain. While the attack happened at a Conservative synagogue, the Orthodox community was just as vocal in its communal mourning. There were…
Once again, Israel and Gaza seemed on the brink of war. And once again, a delicate ceasefire has been reached. And yet, while it’s a relief not to be at war, there is a sense of the return of the awful same. Leaders on both sides are desperately trying to impress their constituents by exploiting…
Most American Jews have always believed America to be special among diaspora countries, fundamentally unlike Europe or the Middle East, where Jews lived for centuries before our grandparents and great-grandparents were forced to flee for their lives. That was before the Pittsburgh shooting that left 11 Jews dead. Now, against a backdrop of increasingly emboldened…
Another round of violence has engulfed Gaza. After a botched intelligence operation in which one Israeli officer was killed as well as seven Palestinian members of Hamas, Hamas responded to Israel’s incursion by firing rockets into Israel. Israel immediately instrumentalized a story of defense. The Israeli army reported that the operation which sparked this round…
The Women’s March has been a hot mess since it sprang out of Pantsuit Nation’s white feminism. In its scramble to become more intersectional than its predecessor, its leadership was quickly filled by a diverse group of women. Regardless, many Black women, Women of Color, and trans and gay women still did not feel at…
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