Opinion

• Opinion

  I’m Black And Jewish. Israel Is Not My Promised Land.

  I recently received an invitation from the Consulate General of Israel in Chicago to visit Israel. I should have felt proud. I should have felt honored. I should have felt something. But I didn’t. Imagine, a trip to the Holy Land, the land promised by God to Abraham: I’d wanted to go for so long,…

  By Tamar Manasseh

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  How I Came Face To Face With Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance

  This compressed, rundown Arab village with roots that date back thousands of years to the biblical prophet Zachariah, now surrounded by a dozen gleaming Jewish settlements, may not appear like an obvious place to witness Palestinian nonviolent resistance. But it is there, if you look and listen carefully. It’s in the low-slung, trailerlike building that…

  By Jane Eisner Jan 3, 2018 | 11 min read
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  Opinion

  We Asked 20 Rabbis: Where Do You See The Jewish Community In 50 Years?

  As a part of our Rabbi Roundtable series, we brought together leading rabbis from all corners of the Jewish world to offer their thoughts on the big questions. This week, we asked our rabbis, “Where do you see the Jewish community in 50 years?” Here are their responses: Adina Lewittes, Conservative, Sha’ar Communities: Jewish communities…

  By Forward Staff Jan 2, 2018 | 8 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman A doctor in the midst of the Boulder attack: ‘This did not come out of vacuum’

  

• Nora Berman For new parents, the aid crisis in Gaza is hitting hard

  

• Dan Perry Don’t be grateful two hostages’ bodies were recovered. Be furious.

  

• Emily Tamkin The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  How My Daughter Helped Me Realize That Women Are More Than Just Victims

  I will confess that when I found out I was pregnant almost exactly seven years ago, I prayed, in my furtive post-ultra-Orthodox-atheist way, that I wasn’t having a girl. Not because the happily-every-after-formula in all the stories I’d been told as a child was “and nine months later his wife gave birth to a healthy…

  By Leah Vincent Jan 2, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  No Single Organization Speaks For Jewish Millennials

  A recent op-ed in these pages by Madi Norman, a member of IfNotNow Chicago, argued that young Jews feel unrepresented by what she calls “the Jewish establishment.” In focusing on combating the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel, Norman argues, institutions have failed to understand how young Jews think. The focus on BDS, writes…

  By Seffi Kogen Jan 2, 2018 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Want To Help Women Rabbis Get The Respect They Deserve? Here’s A List

  Recently, my colleague, Rabbi Jordie Gerson, wrote an op-ed regarding the most common type of erasure that female clergy encounter: the omission of title and withholding of respect. It is a large-scale battle, but one that is fought in small moments. The article sparked a wide-ranging discussion among my colleagues in the Reform rabbinate. Many…

  By Kari Hofmaister Tuling Jan 2, 2018 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  No, DC’s Museum Of The Bible Doesn’t Violate Separation Of Church And State

  To the Editor: I have not yet visited the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC., and have no strong views about it one way or the other. But I am a scholar of religion and law, and I can say that Gordon Haber’s article about the museum in the January 2018 issue of…

  By Perry Dane Jan 2, 2018 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  No, Cornel West Is Not An Anti-Semite

  In 1966, the eminent Jewish theologian Michael Wyschogrod wrote an article called “The Jewish interest in Vietnam,” in which he argued that Jews should support American intervention in Vietnam. A Communist victory in Vietnam, he worried, would encourage Russian support of the Palestine Liberation Organization and thus threaten Israel. Several million Vietnamese dead later, Wyschogrod’s…

  By Raphael Magarik Dec 29, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  I Am The Rabbi, Not His Assistant. We Must Fight The Erasure Of Female Clergy

  A few weeks ago I got home from the URJ Biennial – a convention of 6000 Reform Jews from all over the world who come together to sing, prayand learn for five days. Among the attendees there were dozens of women Rabbis, and many more female Jewish professionals. All attendees wore name tags which gave…

  By Jordie Gerson Dec 29, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  My New Year’s Resolution? No More Political Posts!

  Every year, my resolutions revolve around the same issues: More flossing, less Diet Coke. More treadmill, less couch time. More filing, less piling. But for 2018, I’m jettisoning all the usual lofty goals and whittling down my resolutions to just one: No more political posts on social media. I did not come to this decision…

  By Bonnie Rubin Dec 29, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Social Media Is Dangerously Undermining Our Democratic Values

  Seven years ago, the internet felt like a vast new democratic space for borderless community building and for the exchange of political and intellectual ideas. For political and civil society activists, social media platforms became an invaluable tool for reporting and organizing. For dissidents in authoritarian regimes, it was an uncensored platform from which they…

  By Lisa Goldman Dec 28, 2017 | 6 min read