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
Can You Be Racist Against White People (Like Sarah Jeong)? Ask The Jews.
Can you be racist against white people? A recent New York Times hire has ignited a polarizing debate around this topic. Last week, The Times announced it had hired Sarah Jeong, a tech writer for the Verge, to join its Editorial Board. The internet very quickly unearthed tweets Jeong had written in 2014 that seemed…
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Opinion What Jeremy Corbyn Can Learn From Linda Sarsour
One of the most important questions facing Jews on the Left today is whether there is a difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. It gets at the heart of dual, sometimes-paradoxical commitments: on the one hand, to be a member of a once persecuted and sometimes still persecuted minority; on the other hand, to use what…
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Letters Israel Was Right To Define Itself As A Jewish State
Dear Editor, I must, with respect, differ from my friend Alan Dowty, who argued against defining Israel as a Jewish State. While I strongly disagree with much of the recently Knesset-passed Nation-State Bill, especially its denigration of the role of the Arabic language in Israel and its claim that a united Jerusalem is the capital…
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Opinion I’m A British Jew. Jeremy Corbyn Is Not A Threat To Us.
Last week, the three Jewish newspapers in Britain made a point of publishing the same front page editorial to highlight the “existential threat to Jewish life” that a Jeremy Corbyn-led government would pose to British Jews. I am a life-long Labour supporter, a 52-year-old British Jew, born and bred in the outer suburbs of London…
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Opinion Like NFL Stars, Arab Israeli Athletes Should Take A Knee
Israel’s newly-passed law defines Israel as a nation-state solely for the Jewish people. It anchors Israel as a Jewish, non-democratic state, declares Hebrew as the sole official language, and deprives Palestinian Israelis of the rights to equal citizenship and self-determination. The means that, even though Palestinian citizens of Israel are one-fifth of the total population,…
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Opinion Jeremy Corbyn Purports To Defend Minorities. What About Jews?
Since Jews are so notoriously argumentative and Jewish communities notoriously fractious, the joke is that for every two Jews you need three synagogues. So a unified statement from a community citing an “existential threat” to Jewish life in a Western democracy is really news. Even in Britain, a community once noted for its surprising unity…
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Opinion Tolerating Anti-Semitism Hurts The Palestinian Cause
The British Labour Party has enjoyed a massive surge in membership and its best electoral success in decades under Jeremy Corbyn, the maverick socialist who rose from obscurity to capture its leadership in 2015. But since Corbyn’s election, Labour has been marred by an anti-Semitism problem that is now tearing the party apart. An anti-Semitic…
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Opinion We’re Staunch Zionists. And We Are Worried About Israel’s Democracy.
Both of us have spent decades in public service in several U.S. administrations working to enhance the ties between the United States and Israel. Separately, in our private careers we have sought to promote the well-being of the Jewish people. We believe a strong, democratic Israel in the troubled Middle East is in the national…
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Opinion In This #MeToo Era, How Do We Separate Bad Behavior From Good Work?
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! I was overwhelmed by the reaction to my column last week on how I was grappling, personally and professionally, with the dismaying news that the respected sociologist, Steven M. Cohen, had sexually harassed…
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Opinion Israel Has Chosen Ultra-Nationalism Over Diaspora Jews
Back in the late 1990s, it seemed appropriate to describe relations between Israel, the United States and the American Jewish community as a strategic triangle. Each of the three sides to the triangle interacted with and nourished the other two. This was not an equilateral triangle: Israel seemed to be replacing U.S. Jewry as the…
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Letters Depriving Orthodox Children Of Education Hurts Our Communities
Last April, passage of the New York State budget was delayed by a state senator’s contending there ought to be a separate, and weaker, standard for educating some children attending New York State’s non-public schools. For decades, New York State required all school age children to be provided with a comparable program of instruction whether…
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