In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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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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Opinion Barnard’s BDS Vote Is What Happens When You Don’t Let Us Question Israel
This week, Barnard University’s students voted to divest from Israel. The news was shocking, not least because Barnard has the highest population percentage of Jews of any secular college in America. With a Jewish population of 33%, Jews could have voted down the motion had they all shown up and supported Israel. Where were those…
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Letters Letter to the Editor: ‘Diaspora’ Is Hardly A Pejorative
To the Editor: Jane Eisner’s April 19 essay “It’s Time For Israel To Recognize That Diaspora Jews Are Already Home” correctly underscores the necessity to alter the framework for dialogue between Israel and world Jewry to an internal family discourse about the meaning of Jewish peoplehood. I disagree about dropping the term “Diaspora,” which is…
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Opinion How Israel Won Over The Syrian People
In a popular Syrian news group on Facebook, a Syrian activist recently shared a video of Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager in jail for slapping an Israeli soldier. Across the world, Tamimi has become a cause celebré, a symbol of the Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation. But when the activist posted the Amnesty International video…
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Opinion It’s Time For Israel To Recognize That Diaspora Jews Are Already Home
The State of Israel is 70 years old, well past its early growing pains; it is strong, confident and distinctive. North American Jewry is still here — strong, confident and distinctive in its own fashion. But the relationship between the world’s two largest Jewish communities is growing more and more strained, and, on this milestone…
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Opinion Seriously, Women’s March – Farrakhan Is OK But The ADL Is Treyf?
After two African-Americans were recently arrested at a Starbucks café for failing to make an order while they were waiting for a friend, the company tried to make amends by announcing that it will provide anti-bias training to all its employees. But that was not quite good enough for Women’s March co-chair Tamika Mallory, who…
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