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
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…
-
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…
-
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…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
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…
-
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…
-
Opinion Israel Just Recognized Itself As A Jewish State. Stop Asking Palestinians To.
Last week, the Israeli Knesset passed the Nation-State Bill ratifying Israel’s Jewish character. The passage of a constitutional provision defining Israel as a Jewish state is clearly of immediate and substantial significance for the state’s Arab citizens. But Israel makes its Jewishness a central component of its negotiations with Fatah and Hamas, too, holding recognition…
-
Opinion Rabbi Jonathan Sacks Has Abdicated His Moral Responsibility
I’ve never met Jonathan Sacks. But his writing has had a deeper impact on my life than any other rabbi’s. I first came across it in a London synagogue in November 2010. Stapled together was Sacks’s commentary on the week’s Torah portion, Parshat Vayetzei, in which Jacob — after tricking his brother and father —…
-
Opinion My Personal and Professional Reckoning With Steven Cohen’s #MeToo Moment
The news that the respected sociologist Steven M. Cohen had repeatedly sexually harassed numerous women in his field left me completely stunned. A professional colleague and personal friend for nearly a decade, he never struck me as the sort to take advantage of his gender or his stature, ever. But the preponderance of evidence in…
-
Letters Jewish Continuity Isn’t Sexist — It’s Necessary
Is Jewish continuity inherently sexist? In some people’s minds, like the author of a recent op-ed in these pages, Jewish continuity is toxically identified with Jewish sociologist Steven M. Cohen. I’m neither judge nor jury, but if the #MeToo allegations against Cohen are true, and they may well be, the prominent sociologist should be held…
-
Opinion Israeli Democracy Is Just Fine
It’s over: Israel has picked “identity over democracy.” That’s both the premise and conclusion of a recent piece by The New York Times columnist Max Fisher, who sees in the lamentable “Nation-State” law passed last week by the Knesset a rejection of democracy, and an embrace of theocracy and ethnocracy. Fisher writes that Israel has…
-
Opinion A Matter Of Conscience: Why I Support The Sanctuary Movement
In the early days of the Trump administration, I wrote an essay expressing serious reservations about the modest but growing movement by churches and synagogues to offer aid and housing to undocumented immigrants. Since then, America has changed, and so have I. My initial unease was not because of what “sanctuary” tries to do, I…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Chabad on high alert after false Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens war claims
- 2
Opinion Marco Rubio invoked a medieval antisemitic trope in justifying war with Iran
- 3
Culture How an Amish Mennonite school in Arkansas went viral with a song by an Orthodox Jew
- 4
News Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s exiled crown prince, has a plan for his people’s future — if they’ll have him
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Why war with Iran puts the US-Israel alliance at risk
-
News Confronting a Khamenei vigil in NYC, Iranian protesters declare solidarity with Jews
-
Opinion During WWII, a heroic Jewish lawyer warned against the dangers of a dual state — is it coming true in Trump’s America?
-
News Ronnie Eldridge was one of NYC’s toughest political minds
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
