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
We have a race problem here in the U.S. Almost daily, we hear of cops being called on African Americans for taking a nap, waiting in a store, grilling in the park, buying shampoo, or playing golf too slowly. But the problem goes much deeper than unchecked racial bias. We tolerate a system that robs…
The other day, a thoughtful acquaintance, who is to my right politically, asked me a question. He asked what I’d advise Israel to do when faced with thousands of Palestinians, some likely bent on violence, who are trying to storm the fence that separates the Gaza Strip from the rest of Israel. (I say “rest…
Today was a heartbreaking day for Gaza. While American and Israeli leaders celebrated a new American embassy in Jerusalem, protests along the Israel/Gaza border resulted in 55 Palestinian deaths. A number of them were children. Throughout the day, the numbers skyrocketed, from 16 to 40 in just one hour. Of those who survived, 2,000 were…
Jerusalem. It has been the center of Jewish prayer, longing, and hope for over 2,000 years. It is where every generation of Jews has turned to, what all of our exiled people have dreamed of, and to where we finally returned as a free nation from the four corners of the world, battered but alive,…
For the past six weeks, social media has been ablaze with the spectacle of thousands of Palestinians moving towards the border fence separating the Gaza Strip and Israel. Departing from six separate tent encampments built a few hundred meters from the border, the “Great Return March” has led to violent clashes, the loss of lives,…
For more than a century, Palestinians have tried to convince the world (wrongly, in my view) that Zionism is inherently racist. Now they have a powerful new ally: Donald Trump. Consider the bigots that Trump has assembled to celebrate the move of America’s embassy to Jerusalem. Among the Americans in attendance were Trump’s ambassador to…
Jordan Peterson and unlikely cult figure in the anti-“political correctness” counterculture on the Internet, has been the subject of much discussion lately—including harsh critiques accusing him of authoritarian tendencies. But probably none have generated as much controversy and backlash as the Forward piece by Ari Feldman with the incendiary title, “Is Jordan Peterson Fueling Jew…
In 1948 my mother was three years old and living in the middle-class Ajami neighborhood on Jaffa’s coast. In April, Hagana and Irgun forces began mortaring the city, pushing Palestinians further and further towards the sea. My mother and her family rushed on to their fishing trawler and sailed north, first to Beirut, then to…
When Israeli authorities revoked the work permit of Human Rights Watch Israel/Palestine director Omar Shakir on May 7 and ordered him to leave the country within two weeks, they presumably anticipated the furious backlash that promptly ensued. After all, already last year, Israel denied Shakir a work permit, only to backtrack quickly in the face…
I feel like I am standing on a melting ice floe. For decades, I have loved Israel. I want it to thrive as a shining, rights-abiding country. And yet, increasingly, I find I can envision a day when I (or maybe my children) will not want to go there anymore. My Jewish life, which began…
In the span of less than a week, President Donald Trump will have upended American foreign policy in the Middle East and delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu everything he’s ever wanted from a White House. By announcing last Tuesday that he is shredding the Iran nuclear deal, and by unilaterally moving the American…
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