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
The ongoing scandal over Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court brings back echoes of the shameful treatment of Anita Hill during her 1991 testimony at the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas. The parallels between the two hearings are a litmus test for how much Washington has progressed in the intervening twenty-seven years. The biggest…
In the weeks since Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, not one, not two, but three women have stepped forward to accuse him of perpetrating or participating in sexual assault. The first charge was Doctor Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation of attempted rape. Ford accused Kavanaugh of holding her down, muffling her screams, and trying…
Today, just hours after a UN speech that drew mocking laughter from world leaders, President Trump emerged from a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu saying, “We are with Israel 100%.” As the saying goes, with friends like these, you don’t need enemies. As Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump systematically work to dismantle liberal democracy…
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! Tal Keinan, an American-born Israeli fighter pilot turned financial entrepreneur turned author, has written a provocative book called “God Is in the Crowd.” It was officially published Tuesday, and I predict you will…
The question of “Who is a Jew,” which has been inflaming passions for so long, has recently heated up once again. Almost every day seems to bring news stories that hinge on what qualifies a person to claim Jewish identity. Whether it’s Julia Salazar relying on family lore to claim she is a Jew of…
In the fall of 1996, while in Israel as part of a small US team trying to negotiate an end to a particularly serious and violent crisis between Israelis and Palestinians, I learned that my mother’s cancer had progressed, and I returned home to be with her for those last precious days. Although neither religious…
The word is out that American liberal Jews, especially the young ones, are distancing themselves from Israel. As an Israeli liberal Jew, I’d love to know how you do that. There are days I want to distance myself from Israel too. But every morning I wake up and there it is, like Woody Allen’s mother…
Donald Trump and Jared Kushner do not represent something entirely new in the American government’s approach to Israel and Palestine. Rather, they represent the grotesque exaggeration of features that have long been present. They are the Clinton, Bush and Obama Middle East teams as seen through a funhouse mirror. They constitute the reductio ad absurdum,…
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! In a column published earlier this month, Bret Stephens of The New York Times suggested that when wealthy donors meet a political candidate asking for money, the conversation should begin with this question:…
A rabbi at a typical Conservative synagogue in a typical American suburb in the New York area recently told me an enlightening story. He got the job about a year ago, coming to the U.S. from Israel, and in his first Shabbat sermon, he waxed poetic about the importance of Israel to the American Jewish…
Dear Jane, In the last line in your op ed on Monday entitled “Family is a Jewish Value Don’t let the Mistakes of a Few Rob us of that Gift,” you write, “My children — and now, my grandchildren — are the greatest joy in my life. Why wouldn’t I want everyone to share that…
100% of profits support our journalism