Opinion

• Opinion

  Why Engaging With Israel Is Essential

  It sounds like an exaggeration, but you know it’s true. You can walk into just about any Jewish gathering place — a synagogue, a social club, a Shabbat dinner — and challenge the very existence of God or the sanctity of Torah, and your religious and ethnic fealty will not be questioned. But dare express…

  By Jane Eisner

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  Is Your Opposition to Intermarriage About Fearing the Other?

  Recently I gave a presentation at a JCC, the marketing of which included the statement, “Intermarriage is good, period.” One of the newly intermarried couples in attendance came up to me afterwards to confide the difficulty of their situation. One half of the couple was not Jewish, while the other half hailed from a disapproving…

  By Paul Golin Oct 9, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Orthodox Women Are Dissatisfied And ‘Checking Out.’ Here’s Why.

  Across the spectrum of Orthodoxy, some women are “checking out.” Whatever the baseline of a given community, from the most conservative to the most “open,” there are some women who want more: For some, this might mean that they wish their education had enabled them to help their young sons with Torah homework, while others…

  By Miriam Gedwiser Oct 9, 2017 | 4 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

  Is Hamas Inching Toward Peace — Or Going Rogue?

  Is Hamas preparing itself to accept a peaceful Israeli-Palestinian coexistence? There are good reasons to believe so. The Islamist terror group has taken several significant steps in recent months that strongly suggest it’s inching toward accommodation. One is the adoption of a new charter that moderates its positions in several critical ways, most notably tacit…

  By J.J. Goldberg Oct 6, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Letters

  Your Focus on Las Vegas Victim’s Beauty Is Offensive

  To the Forward, Of course I have every sympathy for the victims of the Las Vegas shooting. But when I read the line about what a young man told his Jewish mother when he met his wife for the first time (“She’s so beautiful, I can’t believe she’s Jewish!”), I couldn’t believe I was reading…

  By Janine Baer Oct 6, 2017 | < 1 min read
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  Opinion

  Yes, Milo Yiannopoulos Promoted The Alt Right — But The PC Police Helped

  This week, Buzzfeed published a 9,000-word exposé about former Breitbart News star and professional troll Milo Yiannopoulos. The story details his campaign to promote the repugnant movement known as the alt-right. It also contains details to shock even those who already think the worst of both Yiannopoulos and Breitbart News. Who’d have guessed, for instance,…

  By Cathy Young Oct 6, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  Harvey Weinstein’s ‘Casting Couch’ Sexual Harrassment Was Never Ok

  Within Harvey Weinstein’s incoherent statement of apology in the New York Times Friday after he was accused of being a serial sexual harasser of women, among the clumsily misquoted Jay-Z lyrics was an implicit justification for his actions: “I came of age in the 60’s and 70’s, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces…

  By Caty Simon Oct 6, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Calling Las Vegas Shooter ‘Evil’ Lets Trump and Republicans Off The Hook

  A week has now passed since Stephen Paddock murdered 58 men and women, and wounded nearly 500, at a country music concert in Las Vegas. Having searched Paddock’s home and computer, questioned his girl friend and family members, state and federal officials remain flummoxed over the killer’s motivation. Predictably, President Trump has answers where others…

  By Robert Zaretsky Oct 6, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  What Dennis Ross Gets Wrong About the ‘Israel Lobby’

  Critics of my writings on the “Israel lobby” (some of them co-authored with Professor John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago) typically misrepresent our arguments, and they sometimes accuse us of saying the opposite of what we actually wrote. Because these critics cannot refute our case with facts or logic, they typically erect a straw-man…

  By Stephen M. Walt Oct 6, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  Zionism Is a Right, Not a Threat

  Dear Editor, The religion I grew up with always included “Next year in Jerusalem” in EVERY Sabbath service. EVERY SINGLE ONE. The idea that Zioness could be threatening to anyone is absurd and misogynistic. If Linda Sarsour felt threatened it is her own paranoia, especially since she is a supporter of Sharia law which is…

  By Dorothy Pruss Nicolazzo Oct 6, 2017 | < 1 min read
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  Letters

  JVP’s Attack on Zioness Exposes Their Fear at Our Success

  Dear Editor, In an article published in these pages on Wednesday, Alissa Wise, the Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), attacked the Zioness Movement, a new group made up of those of us who seek to pursue social justice while also embracing our Zionist identities. Wise’s piece misrepresents both Amanda Berman and our…

  By Chloe Valdary and Michael Basch Oct 5, 2017 | 2 min read