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
Israel’s Democracy Is On Life Support. Diaspora Jews Must Speak Up.
It is time for the Jewish Diaspora to update some of its favorite lines for advocating on behalf of Israel. For example, “Arabic is one of Israel’s two official languages” is now a factually incorrect statement after Israel’s new Nation-State bill was passed by the Knesset last week. The bill downgraded Arabic from an official…
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Opinion Why Do Israelis Care So Much About Syrians But Not About Palestinians?
On Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Forces released footage of a rescue operation, in which over 400 humanitarian aid workers in Syria, known as White Helmets, were evacuated by Israel along with their families and ferried through the Golan Heights to safety in Jordan. It’s not the first time Israel has engaged in humanitarian efforts…
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Opinion Israel’s New Nation-State Law, and Other Disruptions To The Old Order
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! What a week to be away! President Trump’s disastrous press conference after his meeting with the ruthless Russian President Vladimir Putin left even Republican leaders dismayed — or, as John McCain, his party’s…
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Opinion A Letter To Southern Israelis, From Your Neighbor In Gaza
To Gaza’s Neighbors in southern Israel: Over the last month, you’ve had some of the most sleepless and terrible nights in years, and so have your Palestinian sisters and brothers in Gaza. Shabbat after Shabbat, you had only 15 seconds to shelter your loved ones; meanwhile, many Gazans had no time to escape, nowhere to…
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Letters No, ‘Protest Tourism’ Is Not A Thing
As a young-ish British Jewish anti-occupation activist, I’m sadly all too familiar with straw-man attacks. I and others like me are so viciously attacked online following any meagre expression of opinion that if you were to believe even just half of the things written about us on the internet, you may be excused for thinking…
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Opinion Everything You’ve Heard About Israel’s Nation State Bill Is Wrong
Israel’s new Nation State Law, which passed last week with the aim of affirming the country’s Jewish character, has come under considerable fire. The new legislation is made up of mostly symbolic declarations that reaffirm the symbolism, calendar, and meaning of the “Jewish State.” And it took about eleven seconds before critics went ballistic. Ahmed…
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Letters No, American Zionism Is Not Apathetic
Last month on the pages of The Forward I claimed the right to be a liberal Zionist in America, one who feels a deep connection with Israel, one who continues to envision a democratic Jewish state that exists alongside a free and independent Palestine — but also one who recognizes that a half-century after the…
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Opinion How A #MeToo Scandal Proved What We Already Know: ‘Jewish Continuity’ Is Sexist.
Steven M. Cohen is perhaps the most important Jewish sociologist in America. A prolific writer and popular speaker on the Jewish circuit, Cohen is best known as the architect of the intermarriage “crisis” discourse; he has for decades used sociological surveys to insist that intermarriage is “the greatest single threat to Jewish continuity today.” But…
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Opinion How Jewish Academia Created A #MeToo Disaster
On Thursday, an exposé in the Jewish Week chronicled eight women’s stories in which they accused Steven M. Cohen of exploitative conduct. The personal and institutional dimensions of these serious allegations will ripple far into the future in ways we cannot know. However, as historians of American Jews, we do know that these allegations reflect…
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Opinion For Palestinians, Israel’s Nation State Bill Only Tells Us What We Already Know
Late Thursday night, the Israeli Knesset passed a controversial law that defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. As a Basic Law, it enshrines much of the ongoing discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Critics have slammed the new law as “the official beginning of fascism and apartheid” and “a poison pill for…
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Opinion Why Do People Care More About Adelson’s Money Than The Lives Of Palestinians?
Over the past three weeks, 13 Birthright participants decided to walk off their Birthright trips, causing quite a stir. The walk-offs happened on three different trips, but all for the same reason. After repeatedly asking questions about the material they were being presented and then receiving whitewashed answers about Israel’s military rule over Palestinians, or…
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Opinion Why war with Iran puts the US-Israel alliance at risk
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News Confronting a Khamenei vigil in NYC, Iranian protesters declare solidarity with Jews
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Opinion During WWII, a heroic Jewish lawyer warned against the dangers of a dual state — is it coming true in Trump’s America?
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