Opinion

• 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…

  By Maurice Harris

  3 min read
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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…

  By Lev Golinkin Jun 26, 2018 | 4 min read
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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…

  By Matthew Lefferman Jun 26, 2018 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman Trump is backed into a corner on Iran. Get ready for him to start blaming Jews

  

• Dan Perry The Iran war looks like a failure. Now comes the Trump-Netanyahu spin game

  

• Emily Tamkin We must rewrite the rulebook for fighting antisemitism — or conspiracists like Joe Kent will win the narrative wars

  

• Jay Michaelson Passover’s 4 cups of meaning

  

The Latest

• 
  Opinion

  De Niro, Sanders, and the Need for Derech Eretz

  Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! Two years ago, during the height of ferocious anti-Semitic trolling of Jewish journalists, including many at the Forward, I issued a Trumpatorium. For 24 hours, from 5 am June 21, 2016 to 5…

  By Jane Eisner Jun 25, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Our Israel Education Is Failing

  Have you ever seen cars from the 1960s? They’re built like tanks, with big, bold chrome fins and solid, unyielding steel frames that look like they could survive an artillery blast. The cars, of course, were death traps. In the event of a collision, all the impact would get transferred to the driver. Modern cars,…

  By David Schraub Jun 25, 2018 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Jared Kushner’s Peace Efforts Will Only Make Things Worse

  Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, the Trump administration’s Middle East peacemakers, just completed another round of Middle East visits. Their most important interlocutors were Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and Mohammed bin Salman (MbS), the revolutionary new Saudi leader. Together, the four appear to be launching a project to create a Palestinian Islamist mini-state…

  By Yossi Alpher Jun 25, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  ZOA Needs To Come Clean About Qatari Cash

  It is by now common knowledge that the government of Qatar, the tiny Gulf state rich in gas, has been courting pro-Israel American Jews for some time now. Morton Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, and Alan Dershowitz, the famous lawyer and Israel defender, are just two of the prominent pro-Israel Jews who…

  By Gregg Roman Jun 25, 2018 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  The Liberal Case For Nationalism

  On the morning of June 22, the television show “Fox and Friends” discussed President Trump’s executive decision to stop his own administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. “Like it or not, these aren’t our kids,” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said of the 2,000 children who had been taken…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Jun 24, 2018 | 11 min read
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  Opinion

  You Don’t Need To Compare Family Separation To The Holocaust. America Has Its Own Ugly History

  When I was in Orthodox high school, a teacher drew heartrending parallels between the Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto and the forcible internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. She did not equate these two tragedies; it was a lesson in how despite the fact that America may have been rightly celebrated for its…

  By Sara G. Marcus Jun 22, 2018 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Yossi Klein Halevi Asks Me To Recognize His Humanity. Can He Do The Same For Me?

  To Yossi Klein Halevi, on the publication of your book “Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor”: It’s great that you are calling me neighbor, because in fact we are neighbors even though it took me time to realize it. It’s true there is wall between us, and it’s more that just a concrete wall; it’s an…

  By Khalil Sayegh Jun 22, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Can Ashkenazi Jews Face Israel’s Dark History Of Family Separation?

  I have an aunt named Malkah who I may never know, because she was kidnapped from a Jerusalem hospital in 1961. I didn’t even know that Malkah existed until two years ago when my grandmother, Aisha Biton, passed away, and a chapter of her life, hidden for most of mine, came into the open. Aisha…

  By Hannah Goldman Jun 21, 2018 | 5 min read