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
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Opinion
I Was Smeared By Public Radio For Being A Black Activist Trying To Get My Message Out
In 2018, the most important indicator of power might just be the question of who has a platform. Access to a platform means having your voice heard, something traditionally marginalized people have often struggled with, seeing as those who tend to have access haven’t been too anxious to let us in. We take it where…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Just Taught Us How To Criticize Israel With Love
In today’s increasingly tribal, zero-sum world, there is no discussion more tribal and zero-sum than the one surrounding Israel. Despite the plaintive cries of lovers of Israel that support for Israel does not mean one has to agree with every action Israel does, this seems to be the exact reasoning both the pro-Israel and anti-Israel…
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Opinion What Would Elie Wiesel Have Done? (Not Stay Home Like Natalie)
Natalie Portman should have done in 2018 what Elie Wiesel did when accepting the Congressional Gold Medal of Achievement in 1985. And what David Grossman did last week, before accepting the Israel Prize for Literature. And what countless Jews have done throughout recorded time, grasping the prophetic opportunity to, in Wiesel’s words, “speak truth to…
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Opinion Actually, Natalie Portman, You ARE Practicing BDS
Dear Natalie (If I may), In recent days, I have followed closely your decision not to appear at a prize ceremony in Israel and your statement about it. Your decision was important to me not only because I am Palestinian, but because I realized we have some things in common, you and I. I was…
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Opinion Hamas, Not Israel, Is Responsible For Deaths In Gaza
It’s now been a month. An entire month of Palestinian organized, initiated and funded violence at the border with Gaza. What began with a promise of non-violence has cost some 35 Palestinian lives and hundreds of reported casualties. But the leaders of Hamas keep promising us that the worst is still ahead. Indeed, we are…
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Opinion What If It Were Your Child Killed In Gaza?
My mother started to scream on Friday, when she learned that my 18-year-old brother went to the Gaza border protests without telling her. She cried on and off all day long, in a state of hysterical panic until he returned back home safely late at night. She asked him why he went even though she…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Shows the Tide is Turning For American Jews
Yesterday afternoon, news broke that Natalie Portman would not be traveling to Israel to accept the Genesis Prize because of “recent events in Israel.” Portman had been awarded the prize because of “her talent, her commitment to social causes, and her deep connection to her Jewish and Israeli roots.” The news that she would not…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Speaks Loudly For Young American Jews With Snub Of Israel
On Thursday, actress Natalie Portman set the Jewish world on fire. Portman, an Israeli citizen who was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States at the age of 3, was set to receive the Genesis Prize in Israel in June. The prize has been dubbed the “Jewish Nobel” and is given in partnership…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Is Just The Latest Jew To Abandon Israel
Recently a colleague, an American left-of-center media influencer, reached out to me, sharing the news that students at Barnard, that most Jewish of schools, had passed a resolution calling on the college to “divest from eight companies that profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.” She asked me why it…
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Opinion Why The ADL Must Be Included In Intersectional Activism
In 1996, the Anti-Defamation League settled a lawsuit accusing it of hiring spies to collect information on groups representing Arab and African-Americans. And in the years since then, it has often taken positions contrary to those held by pro-Palestinian groups. Both of these factors have generated concern among activist groups who may have been the…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Isn’t The Problem. The Genesis Prize Is.
Citing recent “extremely distressing” events in Israel, Natalie Portman announced yesterday “she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel.” The granting of the Genesis Prize, which she was due to receive in June, has been cancelled. Portman “joins those who see the story of the wondrous success of the rebirth of…
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Film & TV Decades after her ancestor was blacklisted from Hollywood, this teenager is bringing her family’s history to light
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Antisemitism Decoded Some people are learning the wrong lessons from Ahmed al Ahmed
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Fast Forward At White House Hanukkah party, Trump says Congress ‘is becoming antisemitic’
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Letters Australia’s Yiddish community is thriving, not reviving
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