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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Letters
Liberal American Jews Have A Right To Celebrate Israel
In their response to my recent piece, “The Loneliness of the Liberal Zionist,” Harry Reis and Yoav Schaefer have argued that Israel bears responsibility for the decline (if not death) of liberal Zionism as a viable future path for the Jewish state. Because of five decades of occupation, unremitting settlement expansion beyond the Green Line,…
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Opinion The Rebbe Lives On, 24 Years After His Death
I was almost 15 that night in June 1994 when we received the devastating news of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s passing. It was Saturday night; I had spent Shabbat in Manhattan along with hundreds of others camping in and around Beth Israel Hospital, hoping and praying to hear of an improvement in the Rebbe’s condition. I…
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Opinion When Did The Orthodox Community Become So Anti-Immigrant?
In March, a friend of mine posted an article that appeared in these pages about Orthodox Jewish families who hired drivers to take their undocumented workers to Florida for Passover. The families subjected the workers to long and arduous journeys, risking their deportation so that they could have help for the holiday. The friend who…
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Opinion The OU Should Stick To Kosher Laws – Or Become Treif
The Orthodox Union has a branding problem. This week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at their Advocacy Center’s annual Leadership Mission, amid protests over the policy, which Sessions created and presides over, of separating masses of children from their parents at the United States border. At the OU conference, Sessions enthusiastically endorsed the Supreme Court’s…
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Opinion How Israel Killed Liberal Zionism
Whether liberal Zionism is a dead letter or merely on the ropes remains an open question. Jarrod Tanny’s recent piece on “The Loneliness of Liberal Zionism” is the latest salvo in this ongoing debate. Liberal Zionists, Tanny tells us, are attacked from both the anti-Zionist left and the right, “forced to wage war on two…
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Opinion Camp Ramah Promised Change. Then It Broke Our Hearts.
On March 22, following months of gathering testimonies and public campaigning urging Ramah and other Jewish summer camps to talk about the Occupation and include Palestinian perspectives, we — alumni of six Ramah camps and members of IfNotNow— had the opportunity to sit down with National Ramah Commission Director Rabbi Mitch Cohen to share our…
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Opinion The Angry Left Is Turning Me Into A Trump Supporter
During the election, the deluge of hate that came my way when I expressed my disapproval of then-candidate Donald Trump was so violent that I purchased a gun. But these days, the vitriol is coming from the other side. Chance the Rapper, for example, was was eviscerated online for suggesting that “Black people don’t have…
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Opinion No, We Don’t Have To Be Friends With Trump Supporters
On Monday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a ruling that would change the course of American asylum policy: the closing of America’s doors to those escaping domestic violence and gang violence. Asylum seekers from Central America and elsewhere else, fleeing desperate conditions and frequently in terror for their lives, are now officially unwelcome. Coupled with…
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Opinion The Hysteria Over An Israel/Diaspora Split Has To Stop.
The American Jewish Committee’s recent survey has already sparked considerable debate over the future of the Jewish people — indeed, whether there even is a single Jewish people. Most concerning to many is the finding that American Jews and Israeli Jews have diverged to the point that while a majority of both groups see the…
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Opinion Censoring Art After #MeToo: Where Do We Draw The Line?
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! I am an unabashed fan of 1950s musicals and movies. Growing up, the local New York television station — yes, such a thing existed — ran reruns every weekday afternoon, and that often…
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Opinion Stop Comparing Immigrant Deportations To The Holocaust
The Trump administration’s treatment of asylum seekers and immigrant communities is filling many Americans with horror and dread. During the dark days of this administration, we are seeing immigrants who have built homes, businesses and lives in America have their legal status arbitrarily revoked by refusals to extend TPS. We are hearing the screams of…
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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 חסידישע מעשׂיות אין אַ נײַ-אַלטן לבֿושOld Hasidic stories with a new twist
דער שרײַבער ברוך האַגער איז צווישן די זעלטענע שרײַבער, וואָס גיבן זיך אָפּ מיט דער שפּראַך פֿון דער חסידישער מעשׂה אויף ייִדיש.
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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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