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
It’s Our Civil Right To Be Uncivil In The Age Of Trump
Ever since Sarah Huckabee Sanders, President Trump’s press secretary, was booted out of a restaurant for lying to the American people about the president’s policy of tearing babies from their mothers’ arms, calls for civility have populated the op ed pages of the country’s biggest papers. Even the editorial board at the Washington Post published…
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Opinion Trump Is Turning America Into An Idol
There are many reasons for American Jews to reject Donald Trump’s inhuman treatment of the undocumented families who cross America’s borders. The Torah emphasizes the value of all people. (It doesn’t begin with Jews. It begins with Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel and Noah, who hail from no nation or tribe). The Torah repeatedly stresses our…
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Opinion New Jewish Agency Chief Learns Quickly About Intermarriage. It’s Sensitive.
On Sunday, Isaac Herzog — outgoing leader of Israel’s opposition party, son of the sixth president of Israel, grandson of a chief rabbi — was unanimously elected chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, the largest Jewish nonprofit in the world. It took only a few days for him to run into the buzz saw…
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Opinion Israel, Learn About American Jews. You’d Quickly Fall Out Of Love With Trump.
Forty years ago, Hillel Halkin wrote a powerful defense of Zionism in the guise of letters to an imaginary American friend. This year, Yossi Klein Halevi published what has become a best-selling book framed as letters to an imaginary Palestinian neighbor. I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to mimic the skill and impact these two…
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Opinion The Court Has Been Wrong Before. We Must Keep Fighting.
Surreal. Disappointing. Disheartening. These are the words that came to my mind this morning, when I first learned that the Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s discriminatory and un-American Muslim travel ban. After a year and a half of working alongside allies and impacted communities to oppose it, I wasn’t surprised by today’s decision — but…
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Opinion The Jewish Community Must Oppose Trump’s Muslim Ban
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled today to uphold the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries. The current version suspends and restricts entry for immigrants, refugees and even visa holders from Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela; the latter two countries were added after the ban was contested in…
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Opinion Why The Orthodox Hate ‘Tikkun Olam’
Jonathan Neumann is furious at Liberal Judaism and I understand why. It was not so long ago that I was angry at them as well. Sadly, though, his anger makes him commit an infraction that is not so different from the transgression that incites his own righteous indignation. He lacerates his political adversaries for misusing…
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Opinion Intermarriage Fear-Mongering Hides The Real Threat To Jews
At a moment in which liberal leaning American Jews — that is to say, the vast majority of American Jews — are feeling dismay at the coziness of fellow demagogues Trump and Netanyahu, the appointment of Labor leader Isaac Herzog to lead the Jewish Agency (in a sharp break with tradition, in which the prime…
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Opinion They’re Right: Tikkun Olam Is Fake Judaism (A Modest Proposal)
In light of Jonathan Neumann’s essay exposing the evils of liberal Judaism and its embrace of tikkun olam, I have been forced to re-evaluate my life’s work as a liberal rabbi. I now realize the tremendous damage I have done to Judaism through my part in the spread of the cult of tikkun olam, which…
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Letters Sorry, Howard Dean, Pogroms In Ukraine Are Not ‘Russian Propaganda’
Dear Governor Dean: You recently tweeted about an article I wrote in these pages. The article was about anti-Semitism and anti-Roma pogroms in Ukraine. You were skeptical: Be interested to know if this is based on Russian disinformation. https://t.co/h2uKTYYKeR — Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) June 25, 2018 I’m glad you’re exhibiting a healthy skepticism. The next…
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Letters In Defense of Camp Ramah
“Are you ready for the summer?” goes the phrase from the Bill Murray comedy “Meatballs.” When asked if the ritzy Camp Mohawk is worth the price, Murray’s character rattles off its unique programs — a roundtable with Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat rapping with the kids and a not-so-P.C. version of sexual awareness week. If a…
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Fast Forward Chabad on high alert after false Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens war claims
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Opinion Marco Rubio invoked a medieval antisemitic trope in justifying war with Iran
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Culture How an Amish Mennonite school in Arkansas went viral with a song by an Orthodox Jew
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Opinion The real reason for the US war with Iran may have nothing to do with Israel
In Case You Missed It
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Yiddish ייִדיש האָט אַ לאַנגע רשימה ווערטער פֿאַר „בית־עולם“ Yiddish has a long list of words for ‘cemetery‘
אויף לשון־קודש קען „עולם“ באַטײַטן „אייביקייט“. הייסט אַ בית־עולם דאָס אָרט, וווּ מע בלײַבט אויף אייביק.
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Fast Forward IHOP denies inviting Florida GOP candidate who said ‘Americans shouldn’t die for Israel’
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Yiddish וואָס ייִדישע אימיגראַנטן האָבן אַנטדעקט וועגן ליבעWhat immigrant Jews learned about love
אין דער גאָלדענער מדינה האָבן די שידוך־מינהגים פֿון דער אַלטער היים אויסגעזען מאָדנע, און אַפֿילו אַנטי־דעמאָקראַטיש
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News ‘Auschwitz’ is a hit Iranian protest anthem, part of a music genre rebelling against official antisemitism
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