Opinion

• Opinion

  Inside The Satmar Plan To Win Independence For Kiryas Joel

  Once again, Kiryas Joel is in the news. The latest is that the Town of Monroe had voted overwhelmingly to agree to the secession of the Satmar enclave, which will form a new all-Hasidic town of Palm Tree. On the face of it, this seems like a bold new phase in the political history of…

  By David N. Myers

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why The #NeverTrump Movement Died Last November 9

  One year after the election, divisions among Republicans are as deep as ever. Appalled by President Trump’s buffoonery, the #NeverTrump wing of the conservative wing is just as alienated from the pro-Trump, #MAGA (Make America Great Again) constituency as it was in 2016, and the resentment between the two camps is splintering the conservative movement…

  By Bethany Mandel Nov 11, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  It’s Time For Hillel To Become A Democratic Institution

  In 2016, an outspoken BDS advocate ran for the presidencyof the UK’s Union of Jewish Students. He got smoked, coming in last place with less than 10% of the vote. It turns out that young Jews, much like middle-aged and old Jews, don’t like BDS that much. Nothing like this could happen in the United…

  By David Schraub Nov 10, 2017 | 5 min read

Columnists View All

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

  

• Jay Michaelson Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover

  

• Rob Eshman Is JB Pritzker’s very Jewish toughness the key to fighting Trump?

  

• Nora Berman She’s a titan of Israeli architecture. Her story contains troubling lessons for her country

  

• Dan Perry The Trump administration is primed to give a gigantic gift to extremists in the West Bank

  

• Emily Tamkin Passover teaches us why Jews should stand with Mahmoud Khalil

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  Defining Anti-Semitism Is The First Step Towards Stopping It

  On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing about anti-Semitism. At issue was whether the Department of Education should consult a comprehensive definition of anti-Semitism when addressing Jewish students’ complaints of harassment on college campuses, and whether Congress should instruct the Department of Ed to do so. I was one of nine expert witnesses…

  By Andrew Baker Nov 10, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Orthodox Should Know Better Than To Embrace Hatred Of Muslims

  This fall, the Zionist Organization of America announced that Steve Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart and a former adviser to President Trump, would speak at its annual gala. Liberal Jews protested that Bannon has fanned the anti-Semitism of the “alt-right.” Conservatives replied by citing all the Jews Breitbart has employed, and Bannon’s support for moving…

  By Peter Beinart Nov 10, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  On The Anniversary Of Kristallnacht, Jewish Life In Berlin Is Flourishing

  That Jews outside Germany relate to Germany primarily through the Holocaust is grating at times. As exceptional and devastating as that period was — and as much as it continues to shape the Jewish present and future — there is more to Germany than the Holocaust. This is true in terms extending beyond things Jewish, of course. Contemporary Germany…

  By Andrew Mark Bennett Nov 9, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Don’t Appropriate Anti-Semitism. Jews Are More Than Our Suffering

  Decades after Holocaust, European intellectuals, some of them Jewish, began writing books and articles investigating the European history of ideas which led to fascism and, ultimately, to the concentration camps. Many of these intellectuals, prominent philosophers and critical theorists like Jean-Francois Lyotard, began using “the jew” as a trope or concept (indicated here with the…

  By Brandon Katzir Nov 9, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Islam-Terrorism Connection — It’s Not What You Think

  At 3:05 p.m. in New York on October 31, eight passersby were mowed down on a bike path, allegedly by a lone-wolf terrorist claiming obedience to Islam. At that very moment on the other side of the world, Israelis were ushering in the 22nd anniversary, according to the Hebrew calendar, of the murder of Prime…

  By J.J. Goldberg Nov 9, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Actually, American Democracy Is Foiling Trump At Every Turn

  A year ago, when the unthinkable happened and Donald Trump won the presidential election, many of his critics feared the worst. Even before the election, some had warned that a Trump win would mean the undoing of American democracy — an “extinction-level event,” as Andrew Sullivan put it — and a slide toward dictatorship. When…

  By Cathy Young Nov 8, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  The Silver Lining In Brooklyn’s Ultra-Orthodox Mudfest

  On Election Night, I turned on the TV and waited patiently. There was only one competition I was particularly personally invested in: the New York City Council race for the 44th District. The race was waged between an attorney named Kalman Yeger and a social worker named Yoni Hikind. Each had a strong ally backing…

  By Mark Pelta Nov 8, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Hey, Congress: Pay Attention To Nazis, Not Activists

  This Tuesday, Congress held a hearing to address rising campus anti-Semitism. The focus of the hearing centered around redefining of anti-Semitism under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The proposed definition would expand “anti-Semitism” to include speech that “demonizes” Israel. But it completely fails to include in its definition the kind of…

  By Sophie Edelhart Nov 8, 2017 | 3 min read