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
Memo To Left Wing Activists: Israel Is Not Black And White
In 2012, I was an Israel Fellow of the Jewish Agency at the Hillel at The University of Pennsylvania. One day, I arrived at the university to see a beautiful exhibition spread across the center of campus. Thousands of small white flags were planted in the ground interspersed with just a few blue ones. I…
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Opinion Walking Off Birthright? Check Your Privilege
The activist group IfNotNow has a webpage devoted to arranging disruptions of Birthright trips. At notjustafreetrip.com you can sign up with them if you’re attending a Birthright trip and fill out a form letting them know what kind of support you need. One of the options is, “I want to take action on my trip.”…
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Opinion Young Anti-Zionists: Be Uncomfortable, Like I Am With My Zionism
Last week I received an email from a woman I have never met. She told me she had lived in Israel earlier in her life and that, while critical of some of its policies, loves the country in ways she can scarcely express. Then she outlined her problem: Her niece has declared herself an anti-Zionist….
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Letters Letter | Batya Ungar-Sargon’s Attack On BDS Is Inaccurate And Harmful
Dear Editor, Batya Ungar-Sargon’s unsubstantiated comments about supporters of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) — the Palestinian civil society call to hold Israel accountable to basic principles of human rights and international law — deserve a response. While rightly saying that anti-BDS legislation should be opposed, much of her article recklessly slams BDS activists and…
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Opinion Birthright Alumni Reflect On The New Trip Guidelines
Last summer, 13 activists staged dramatic walkouts from their Birthright trips. To prevent more, Birthright added a clause to their Code of Conduct, that participants commit not to “highjack” discussion by turning it toward the occupation. Last week, they made good on the new contract when several Americans were kicked off their Birthright program for…
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Opinion Of Course Birthright Is One-Sided. That’s What Makes It Great.
In 1987, my Jewish day school wanted me to experience what it means to be Israeli, to appreciate the labor of the Zionist pioneers who had returned home after 2,000 years in exile to till the soil and live under the perpetual threat of violent Arabs out to destroy our Holy Land. So I spent…
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Opinion I Was Kicked Off Birthright For Asking Questions About The Occupation
On the fifth day of my Birthright trip, as we drove south from a Kibbutz up north to Tel Aviv, I asked our trip leader if the towering concrete wall I could see from my window was the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel. Two hours later, I stood on a street corner…
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Opinion Birthright Is Chasing Away Engaged Jews To Please Pro-Israel Hardliners
Picture the scene: A group of young American Jews, visiting Israel for the first time on Birthright, demand more education about the country and its politics, trying to realize an age-old Jewish ideal of sharp, open debate. They form new organizations and movements around Jewish political activism, and they form links with groups of Israeli…
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Opinion What Germany’s Prison System – And Its Nazi Past – Taught Me About Ours
This story was co-published with The Marshall Project. My grandfather, a rabbi in Louisiana, served as an Army chaplain during World War II. To the day he died, he couldn’t talk to us about what he saw. The atrocities he witnessed left him deeply scarred. To my surprise, a draft memoir I’d never known about…
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Opinion The Intellectual Dark Web’s Hypocrisy When It Comes To BDS
“Free speech is the fundamental principle of Western civilization.” These are the words of Jordan Peterson, who is perhaps the most prominent figure in what is referred to as the “Intellectual Dark Web” (IDW), a loose network of thinkers and commentators brought together by their opposition to progressive discourse on the left. In a gullible…
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Opinion Trump Tweeted His Way Out Of Syria. Will He Blindside Israel Too?
President Donald Trump’s abrupt decision to announce the withdrawal of 2,000 American personnel from Syria immediately provoked reactions comparing his approach to Syria to President Obama’s: “Mr. Trump’s view that American forces cannot alter the strategic balance in the Middle East, and should not be there, was fundamentally shared by his immediate predecessor, Barack Obama,”…
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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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