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
-
Opinion
The Pittsburgh Killer And Kroger’s Gunman Didn’t Just Kill. They Stole Our Memory.
As the names and ages of those lost in last week’s horrific massacre during Shabbat morning services at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue were released, one heartbreaking fact stood out: The victims were 11 worshippers, all between the ages of 54 and 97. The US Black community also lost two elders last week in a…
-
Opinion Why Calling Anti-Semites ‘White Nationalists’ Actually Gives Them Cover
The mass murder of Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh came as a shock. However, for anyone paying attention, it did not come as a surprise. And therein lies the problem. All too few have been paying attention to anti-Semitism. Among those who have failed to pay heed are the media, universities,…
-
Opinion It’s Time To Call B.S. On Hate Speech As Free Speech
‘I’m a strong supporter of people’s First Amendment rights to speak, whether it is speech I agree with or disagree with,” said Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro in the aftermath of the antisemitic massacre in Pittsburgh. He continued, “What is not tolerable in this country and what is not constitutional in this country is when…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion ‘Money Grubbing’ Campaign Ads Aren’t Anti-Semitic — They’re Politics As Usual
In the wake of the bloodiest anti-Semitic attack in modern American history, many are rightfully emotional and fearful, myself included. But passions have run amok a week before Election Day. Some of this emotion is getting the better of us, and public discourse has descended into the absurd. Even in the face of tragedy, proportion…
-
Opinion The Ugly Reason Naftali Bennett Is Minimizing Anti-Semitism
Among the many inversions of the Trump presidency, perhaps none is weirder than the spectacle of Naftali Bennett, the ultranationalist Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister, downplaying anti-Semitism. Up until now, Bennett seemed to see anti-Semitism rising everywhere around him: in Poland, to which he cancelled a trip in February; in the BDS movement, which he called…
-
Opinion Muslims Must Do More Than Grand Gestures To Eradicate Anti-Semitism
I spent Saturday morning glued to the news, watching as the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh was devastated by a single white supremacist, fueled by both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. As an American Muslim interfaith activist, I’ve spent years forming relationships with the Jewish communities locally and across the country, so my heart swelled to…
-
Opinion Will The Pittsburgh Shooting Affect The Midterms? It Shouldn’t.
Lots of people are asking how the Pittsburgh shooting will influence the midterms. Here’s a thought: They shouldn’t. I believe that’s how Hannah Arendt would respond. As a German Jew in the 1920’s and 30’s, she saw first-hand what happens when politics and emotion mix. And she spent the rest of her life looking for…
-
Opinion Memo To Israelis: America Is Sitting Shiva. Your Job Is To Listen.
I had many great honors in the years I served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. But the single hardest part of the job? The many funerals and shivas I attended. Often I was visiting after a horrific terrorist attack took innocent lives. Sometimes it was to mourn Israeli soldiers who fell in battle. Less painful,…
-
Opinion Donald Trump Has Replaced American Jews With Israel
A powerful split-screen image greeted those following President Trump’s visit to Pittsburgh yesterday in the wake of a horrific massacre that left 11 Jews dead. As the President’s SUV pulled up to the Tree of Life synagogue where the massacre took place, thousands marched through the neighborhood, chanting Jewish prayers about love and kindness and…
-
Opinion Pittsburgh’s Jewish Pride Tested In This Moment Of Crisis
Pittsburgh’s Jews are a proud people. Squirrel Hill is the center of our physical and spiritual world. We are the living, breathing example of what it means to be an American Jew today: integrated Americans exhibiting outward Jewish pride. So when a domestic terrorist shot up my parent’s synagogue, he did so knowing full well…
-
Opinion Special Editorial: #WeAreAllJews
The following is a joint editorial drafted by Jane Eisner, Editor-in-Chief of The Forward, and Dovid Efune, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Algemeiner, and signed by a dozen leaders in American Jewish journalism. Earlier this year, our colleagues at the three leading Jewish newspapers in the U.K. published the same front-page headline and joint editorial…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Sports First Puka Nacua, now Mookie Betts: Why do sports stars keep getting antisemitic around a Jewish streamer?
- 2
Fast Forward After MIT professor’s killing, Jewish influencers spread unverified antisemitism claim
- 3
Politics This politician refused to say ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ then blamed ‘political correctness’ for the backlash
- 4
Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
In Case You Missed It
-
Yiddish יהודה גור-אריה און שירי שפּירא געווינען רובינליכט־פּריז פֿאַר ליטעראַטורYehuda Gur-Arye and Shiri Shapira win Rubinlicht Prize for Literature
די רובינליכט־פֿונדאַציע טיילט צו יערלעכע פּרעמיעס פֿאַר ליטעראַרישער און קולטורעלער טעטיקייט אויף ייִדיש און לטובֿת ייִדיש.
-
Yiddish אַ בריוועלע דער מאַמען (אַ דערציילונג) A letter to my mother (story)
בעת אַ ייִדישער סאָלדאַט ליגט אין אַ סאָוועטישן מיליטערישן שפּיטאָל פֿאַרמעסט זיך זײַן מאַמע קעגן דעם ייִדישן הויפּט־דאָקטער
-
Fast Forward 2 men found guilty in UK of plotting Islamic State-inspired antisemitic terror attack
-
Fast Forward Self-appointed chief rabbi of Saudi Arabia says he was denied entry at border
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
