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
American Jews — Not Just the Orthodox — Should Join Christians in Defending Religious Liberty
In a recent piece entitled “Why are Orthodox Organizations Embracing Christian Values?” Rabbi Jill Jacobs attacked Orthodox Jews for opposing the Obama Administration’s now-rescinded health insurance mandate, which required employers to provide or be complicit in providing some abortion-inducing drugs and sterilizations. She incorrectly suggested that this position conflicts with Jewish law, suggesting that these…
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Opinion Muslim Anti-Semitism In Europe Hurts Jews. But So Does Islamophobia
As the new Austrian government was being sworn in on Monday, bringing the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) back into power for the first time since 2005, thousands partook in resistance demonstrations across Vienna. Among those protesting against the introduction of a twelve-hour work day, tuition fees for college students, and reductions in benefits for asylum…
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Opinion Why So Many Brooklyn Orthodox Jews Are Dying In Tragic Fires
The flames were terrifying. The losses, unbearable. The similarities, deeply sobering. When seven children of the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, died together in an early morning March 2015 house fire, caused by a faulty Sabbath ritual hot plate, a neighbor, Yosi Azan, wrote in a Hebrew Facebook post that he knew the family….
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Opinion 22 Rabbis Agree: It’s Time To Stop Ignoring Jewish Poverty
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, “Is there poverty in your Jewish community? What should we be doing about it?” Here are their responses: Adina Lewittes, Conservative,…
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Opinion The Only Ones Waging A War On Christmas Are Evangelicals
When Donald Trump swaggered to a Southern podium just before the recent Senate election in Alabama, trying to rally his base behind the right-wing zealot and accused pedophile Roy Moore, the stage was decorated with banners declaring “Merry Christmas.” People in the crowd held up green letters spelling out the salutation. A vast banner with…
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Opinion The CDC Banned The Words ‘Fetus’ And ‘Transgender’? How Un-Jewish Of Them
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! The Washington Post report that the Trump administration is prohibiting the Center for Disease Control and Prevention from using certain words as it prepares budget documents ricocheted in my mind this weekend. Jewish…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Opinion I grew up believing Australia was the best place to be Jewish. This Hanukkah shooting forces a reckoning I do not want.
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Opinion His family was killed in Sydney. Hours later, he helped feed 600 unhoused people in LA.
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Fast Forward Yehuda Kaploun confirmed by Senate as Trump’s antisemitism envoy
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Holy Ground One of America’s first Jewish farms was nearly lost to history. Now these Brooklyn parents are risking everything to keep their family’s legacy alive.
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Fast Forward Liberal Zionist groups criticize Trump administration’s travel ban on those with Palestinian Authority passports
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