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
Pittsburgh Synagogue Murder Spree Latest In 4 Decades Of Organized Anti-Semitic Attacks
The Saturday morning massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation is unique in a certain sense. The murder of 11 Pittsburgh synagogue congregants by a white supremacist gunman is by far the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. But while it’s the worst, it’s not the first, nor the second nor even the 10th case…
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Opinion The Special Kind Of Hate That Drove Pittsburgh Shooter — And Trump
It happened on Parshat Vayera. The worst anti-Semitic attack in American history occurred while Jews around the world were reading the Torah portion that tells the story of Lot, an immigrant. Lot moves to Sodom, and prospers there. The Midrash says he becomes a judge. His daughters intermarry with the locals. Then one day, while…
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Opinion Celebrate The First Vote Like A Civic Rite Of Passage
This column has a message for every person eligible to vote for the first time this November. Cast that ballot! And to every mother, father, sister, brother, grandparent, close relative, teacher, principal, coach, rabbi, Hillel director, concerned neighbor and friend in that new voter’s life. Celebrate that First Vote! Unlike so many of life’s significant…
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Opinion Make No Mistake: The Right Created The Synagogue Murderer
Yesterday, a man angrily posted on his social media account, “I can’t sit by and watch my people slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.” And then he walked into a synagogue and killed 11 Jews. We already know what will happen now. They will tell us not to politicize this. They will tell us…
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Opinion The Right Has Blood On Its Hands After Pittsburgh Carnage — And So Does The Left
Grief. Darkness. Uncontrollable rage. These are the things consuming the American Jewish community today, the darkest day in our history in this country. There is little surprise, but boundless, unending sadness and anger. In a crisis, we often feel a desire to move. It’s flight or fight. It’s adrenaline. It’s evolutionary. Today, I want you…
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Opinion How Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Hate Led To A Synagogue Shooting
Every Saturday morning, I go to synagogue to reconnect, both with God and with my fellow Jews. This morning was like any other, featuring prayer, arguments over the sermon, and jokes over bagels and cream cheese during the kiddush luncheon. It was only after I returned home that I realized, to my horror, that while…
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Opinion Pittsburgh Shooting Is A Reminder: Jews And Muslims Are In This Together
Robert Bowers was angry at Jews. But the 46-year-old alleged killer of at least eleven people in a Pittsburgh synagogue seemed most angry at Jews for one particular reason: They were helping Muslim refugees flee to safety in America. In posts on Gab, the social media network favored by white supremacists, Bowers fixated on HIAS,…
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Opinion Will Synagogue Bloodbath Be Wakeup Call For Jews Who Enable Trump’s Hate?
On Saturday morning, a white nationalist walked in to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, and killed 11 people as of the last count. His declared reason for this carnage was a hatred of HIAS, a Jewish organization that advocates for refugees, founded in 1881. The organization does have a chapter in…
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Opinion What Has Trump Done To Us, America?
I have one daughter who is a freelance journalist and has reported from all sorts of dangerous places in the Middle East and Africa. I have another daughter who is a nurse practitioner and right now is delivering health care to the Rohingya, whose plight is creating the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world….
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Opinion For Centuries, Jewish Tradition Has Recognized Trans People
The idea that there are two and only two sexes is relatively new. This week, in a memo leaked to the New York Times, the Trump administration stated its goal to institute a federal definition of sex as “unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with.” Furthermore, “any dispute about one’s…
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Opinion Israelis Are Divided Over Whether They Are ‘Jewish’ Or ‘Israeli.’
By now it’s accepted that the American Jewish community and Israel are in crisis mode. Once bound by the tightest of familial bonds, the two communities have grown ever apart, leading to much hand-wringing. The cause of the crisis is generally chalked up to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies – his embrace of the…
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Fast Forward Jewish groups defend European media monitors banned for what State Dept. calls ‘censorship’
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Fast Forward British police drop case against Bob Vylan for ‘Death to the IDF’ chant, sparking outrage from Jewish groups
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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.
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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
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