Opinion

• Opinion

  My Reform Colleagues Were Wrong On Jerusalem

  (JTA) — We were wrong. As Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky pointed out, “The Reform response to the recognition of Jerusalem was terrible. When … a superpower recognizes Jerusalem, first you … welcome it, then offer disagreement. Here it was the opposite.” Sharansky was referring to the Dec. 5 statement issued by all 16 North…

  By Ammiel Hirsch

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jews Are Due For A #MeToo Reckoning — About Palestinians

  To varying degrees, most of us live in a state of willful blindness. We see horror all around us: people lying half-clothed, unconscious, on the sidewalk; football players who sustain brain damage for our enjoyment; news reports about children dying of hunger. We see these things the way we see the passing landscape. We see…

  By Peter Beinart Dec 18, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Time To Call Out Bullying By Social Justice Warriors

  On December 5, 23-year-old Canadian adult film star August Ames (born Mercedes Grabowski) hanged herself in a public park after a day of being viciously attacked on Twitter. While Ames had battled depression and did not mention the online bullying in her suicide note, it likely played a role: Ames’s final tweet, hours before her…

  By Cathy Young Dec 18, 2017 | 6 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson We must face reality — the Gaza war is now a war of annihilation

  

• Rob Eshman This Shavuot, fill your blintz with lox

  

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

  

• Dan Perry Netanyahu is at a crossroads: Endless war, or peace?

  

• Emily Tamkin Even if the Capital Jewish Museum shooter ‘did it for Gaza,’ his actions were antisemitic

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Dear Mr. Vice President: Please Don’t Come To Israel Right Now!

  Mr. Vice President Pence, You are very welcome in Israel, but please, don’t come now. We appreciate your friendship, but your timing is wrong. You are not coming with an Administration’s new plan for peace in our region. You are not coming with any clarifications to President Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem, neither about the boundaries…

  By Yossi Beilin Dec 18, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Seriously, 92Y – Ari Shavit Should Never Have Been Invited In The First Place

  As the world continues to shake with revelations of sexual abuse in the most high-profile corridors of power and the #MeToo realization that it is nearly impossible to find a woman who has not been affected by sexual harassment, some members of Jewish communal leadership seem to be living in a cave. I knew this…

  By Elana Sztokman Dec 15, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  MeToo Needs A Forgiveness Option, And Judaism Can Provide It

  Many famous men have lied about sexually harassing women and have subsequently lost their jobs and social standing. They deserve to pay for their actions, and should repent. But because this problem is systemic, we need systemic repentance as well. The Jewish practice of teshuvah, or repentance, is about “return” to the right behavior, and…

  By Jennifer Thompson Dec 15, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  That Time Hebrew Disappeared For 300 Years

  All cultures have a tendency to make their building blocks into part of a collective myth, oversimplifying them in textbooks and in the collective consciousness of their members. We Jews are hardly immune from this impulse. Indeed, we have performed this very simplification upon a touchstone of our culture: the Hebrew language. Hebrew plays a…

  By Alexander Beider Dec 15, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  What Being The Only Black Kid At Jewish Summer Camp Taught Me About Hanukkah And Kwanzaa

  The proximity yet disconnect between Hanukkah and Kwanzaa has always seemed to me to reflect the relationship between the Jewish and Black communities. These two Diasporas with complex intertwined histories remain in what feels like a constant, surface-level dialogue. Sometimes it bends towards disagreement. Occasionally, it brings potential-filled light-giving sparks, though rarely an enduring fire….

  By Charles L. Howard Dec 15, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Is Trump’s Jerusalem Speech Hurting Israel?

  By this point it’s becoming quite apparent that we won’t be seeing the sort of disastrous fallout that the critics were predicting after the president’s December 6 Jerusalem speech, recognizing the holy city as Israel’s capital. No new Palestinian intifada. No mass rioting across the Muslim world, like the Muhammad cartoon riots of 2005. There…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 15, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  American Jews: Your Obsession With The Western Wall Is Ridiculous

  A familiar scene played out in front of the Western Wall recently. Leaders of the Reform movement from both the United States and Israel along with members of Women of the Wall attempted to pray and bring Torahs to the Wall. They were forcibly stopped and subjected to violence by guards hired by the Orthodox…

  By Peter Joseph Dec 14, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Our Campus Jewish Group Accepts Pro-BDS Students, Even Though They Don’t Return The Favor

  Last week, Joseph Finlay wrote in these pages about new developments in the British Union of Jewish Students, the body that represents Jewish Students in the UK and of which I am the CEO. “[UJS] has always run social and religious programming,” writes Finlay. “But its raison d‘etre has long been defending Israel on campus.”…

  By David Davidi-Brown Dec 14, 2017 | 3 min read