In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
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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…
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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….
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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…
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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…
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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.”…
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Opinion Sweden’s Anti-Semitism Did Not Start With Trump
“Because of Trump, people are burning Israeli flags and attacking Jews” was the shabby and tone-deaf way one news organization framed a series of violent and incendiary anti-Semitic attacks in Sweden, which occurred over the weekend following Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The incitement began on Friday night, when demonstrators gathered…
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Opinion After #MeToo, A Message To My Rapists
I, my friends, and women all over the country have experienced the #MeToo movement as something like a miracle and the women who have risen within it as beings akin to superheroes. As a teenager, I was raped by a boyfriend and then by a best friend. After writing a memoir about some of these…
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Opinion The Facebook Group Where Muslim, Jewish and Christian Women Celebrate Headwrapping
The subject of women covering their hair is one of fascination in the western world. From burqa bans to sheitel shaming, women who cover are often viewed as victims of patriarchy or religious extremists, getting it from all sides. Enter: Wrapunzel. Wrapunzel is a Facebook group, a business and a community devoted to “celebrat[ing] the…
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Opinion For Palestinians, Jerusalem Will Never Only Be The Capital Of Israel
Donald Trump’s announcement last week declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel left my father in tears. He was sitting hunched over his heavily used black laptop, scanning through the unedited sentences of his unpublished novel. My family was gathered around the only source of heat in the room, unaware of his daunting stream of thoughts,…
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Opinion Israel’s Persecution Of Breaking The Silence Exposes Deep Corruption
Over the past few weeks, a storm has raged through Israel. I am a member of Breaking the Silence, an organization of Israeli soldiers who testify about what they did in the occupied territories. Our organization is once again under attack in an attempt to undermine our credibility through smearing our name and paving the…
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Letters Why Do CEOs Make So Much While Everyone Else Makes So Little?
To the Editor, Thank you for lifting the veil on how much some CEOs in the Jewish community are paid. Most if not all of the highly paid CEOs are outstanding professionals — and every day I am grateful that they bring their brilliance, passion and skills to the Jewish people and its institutions. But…
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