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
Birthright Will Fail If It Doesn’t Evolve With Young Jews
On New Year’s Day, a young woman rushed the stage at the “MegaEvent” held in Jerusalem for participants in Birthright, the program that takes young American and other Diaspora Jews to Israel on a free ten-day trip. BREAKING: Young Jew disrupts Birthright’s ‘MegaEvent’, a nationalist rally in Israel with all Birthright participants, holding a sign…
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Opinion Ilhan Omar Needs To Apologize For Her Anti-Semitic Tweet – Like I Did.
When I think about the election of Minnesota Democratic Rep.-elect Ilhan Omar, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, her election is a milestone: she is the first Somali-American Muslim woman elected to Congress and a strong supporter of Palestinian human rights in a Congress that often sees them as an afterthought. But on the…
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Opinion Bernie Sanders Isn’t Just Another White Male Candidate. His Nomination Would Be Historic.
The 2020 Democratic primary will likely offer the most diverse field of candidates either party has ever put forward for the presidency. At least four serious African-American contenders (Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Andrew Gillum, and Eric Holder) have been floated so far, as have at least four women (Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, and…
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Opinion Pittsburgh’s Lessons For America In 2019
On New Year’s Eve 2018 the rain came down on Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill as if to wash away the tragic memories of October 27. The mass shooting at the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Congregation synagogue was the most deadly anti-Semitic attack in America in recent years. But it led to an outpouring of solidarity from…
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Opinion Why Does No One Care That Neo-Nazis Are Gaining Power In Ukraine?
I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told Ukraine doesn’t really have a problem with its far-right. It’s all Kremlin propaganda; you’re personally helping Putin by talking about it; other countries have far-right problems too, so why single out Ukraine? I’ve heard it all. But I expect hear even more lines like this…
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Opinion This Palestinian Was Tortured. But No One Cares Because It Wasn’t By Israel.
Issam Aqel, a Palestinian-American with Israeli residency, has been detained, arrested and tortured. You may be surprised that you’ve never heard of Aqel. It’s usual for the plight of the Palestinians to make big news. But the ugly truth is, they only make big news when they’ve been hurt by Israel. And Aqel was tortured…
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Opinion Mourning Amos Oz In Jerusalem, Where Even The Stones Seem To Weep
It is strange to learn of Amos Oz’s death while in Jerusalem, on the eve of Shabbat, as the dull winter cold descends on the city still drenched from yesterday’s downpour. It’s as if the sky is grieving, the stones are crying. A native son is gone. Oz, who died earlier today at 79, was…
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Opinion Roundtable | White Jews: Here Is What Black Jews Need From You In 2019
I’ve never felt fully welcome in Jewish spaces. I’ve never felt like I truly belonged. This is common among Black Jews. There’s a subset of us that just wish to proceed in the Jewish world unbothered, and to continue our Jewish lives as we see fit, apart from the assumptions and stereotypes assigned to us…
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Letters Letter To The Editor
Dear Editor, As a proud member of the search committee, I found Josh Nathan-Kazis’ Dec. 19 piece about the selection of Lonnie Nasatir as President-Elect of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago to be a missed opportunity to highlight an exciting and pivotal moment in the Chicago Jewish community. The search process was…
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Opinion The Women’s March Is An Abusive Boyfriend. It’s Time To Break Up.
Criticism against the Women’s March has been percolating in Jewish spaces for a while now. From March leader Tamika Mallory’s closeness with Louis Farrakhan, the anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam, to the March’s failure to include Jewish women in its “Unity Principles” to the recent revelation that Mallory and another leader, Carmen Perez,…
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Opinion Your Racism Is Showing When You Tear Down The Women’s March
I have never been an ardent supporter of the Women’s March. The trans-exclusionary elements of the march, including the famous pink pussy hats, coupled with Tamika Mallory’s embrace of Louis Farrakhan — unacceptable for a leader of a national movement — meant that as a black Jewish woman who abhors trans-exclusionary feminism, the Women’s March…
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Opinion Marco Rubio invoked a medieval antisemitic trope in justifying war with Iran
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Antisemitism Decoded After Minneapolis, a YouTuber comes for Jewish ‘welfare queens’
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News Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled crown prince, has a plan for his people’s future — if they’ll have him
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Culture How an Amish Mennonite school in Arkansas went viral with a song by an Orthodox Jew
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Fast Forward House defeats Iran war powers resolution as Democrats wrestle with Israel
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Yiddish פֿאָרווערטס פּאָדקאַסט, קאַפּיטל 8: די אונטערבאַןForverts podcast, episode 8: Subway stories
אין דעם קאַפּיטל וועט איר הערן וועגן דעם ערשטן מאָל וואָס משהלע אַלפֿאָנסאָ האָט געטראָגן אַ יאַרמלקע אויף דער באַן.
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Opinion Gavin Newsom just confirmed the demise of the Democratic party’s support for Israel
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Yiddish ווי אַ כּלי־זמר־פּאַראַד איז געוואָרן טייל פֿונעם קאַרנאַװאַל אין סאַאָ פּאַולאָHow a klezmer parade became part of the annual carnival in Sao Paulo
הײַיאָר האָט מען אָפּגעגעבן כּבֿוד די ייִדישע פּאַרשױנען פֿונעם פֿאָלקלאָר פֿון דער אָרטיקער קהילה.
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