Opinion

• Opinion

  Israeli Weapons Are Being Used To Ethnically Cleanse The Rohingya. This Must Stop.

  As hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people are expelled from their homes in Myanmar in one of the most severe examples of ethnic cleansing in recent times, Myanmar has been getting weapons, military training, and skills from a dismaying source: Israel. I’m not the only one who feels dismay that the Jewish State is allowing…

  By Matthew Gindin

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  What A Rabbi With Cancer Wants To Say To John McCain

  Sen. John McCain and Rabbi Rachel Cowan inhabit different universes politically, socially, economically and religiously. Cowan did not vote for McCain when he ran for president in 2008. In fact, she’s never voted for a Republican and — wild guess here — I bet he’s never participated in a meditation service led by a female…

  By Jane Eisner Sep 26, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Real Reason So Many Jews Can’t Stand Jared Kushner

  Few in Donald Trump’s administration have elicited as much attention as his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Since Trump’s surprise November election, the mainstream media has dropped a steady drumbeat of anti-Kushner reports. So sustained and unyielding has this onslaught been that when Steve Bannon was fired from his White House post and returned to Breitbart, there…

  By Batya Ungar-Sargon Sep 26, 2017 | 7 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 The righteous rabbis protesting those immigration raids in Los Angeles

  

• 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

  My Son’s Opioid Addiction Made Me Feel Like A Failure On Yom Kippur

  On the morning of Yom Kippur our rabbi says a prayer for children. He asks parents to stand with their sons and daughters, regardless of age. Parents place their hands on their child and repeat the threefold ancient blessing. May God bless and protect you; May God cause His face to shine upon you and…

  By Lisa Hillman Sep 26, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  How To Survive Your Trump-Supporting Relatives This Holiday Season

  With the high holiday season upon us, many liberals – especially younger ones – are girding themselves for battle with their Trump-supporting relatives. “Uncle Irv,” I called these people last Spring, after a particularly irritating right-winger with whom I ‘celebrated’ the Seder for many years. Uncle Irv can be particularly challenging at this time of…

  By Jay Michaelson Sep 25, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Is It Anti-Semitic To Schedule Something On Yom Kippur?

  Have Your Say is your chance to tell us what you think. Comment below or on Facebook and let us know what you think about the question posed in the headline. We’ll incorporate your answers in a story later in the week!

  Sep 25, 2017 | < 1 min read
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  Letters

  The Real History Of The Name “Palestine”

  J. J. Goldberg’s September 18 column, “A Major Jewish Philanthropist Just Published a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Palestinians,” is an important journalistic contribution to the American Jewish discussion about Israel, but it contains one subtly pernicious misconception. Mr. Goldberg repeats the received wisdom that the term Palestine was “coined” by the Roman rulers of Jewish…

  By Kenan Jaffe Sep 25, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish Continuity Isn’t Only For The Orthodox

  Last week, we reported in these pages that based on current age contours, the next 40 years will see a large expansion of the Orthodox population, alongside deep declines in the number of Conservative and Reform Jews. To take one startling statistic, of many: For every 100 Orthodox Jews 60-69, we have 575 children under…

  By Steven M. Cohen and Mickey Gussow and Edieal Pinker Sep 25, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  No, It’s Not Anti-Semitic To Schedule Your March For Yom Kippur

  When the Jewish community learned that the March for Racial Justice was scheduled for Yom Kippur (September 30), outraged responses filled social media. It was the immediate aftermath of Charlottesville, and we Jews had been made keenly aware that we, too, remain objects of hate by White Supremacists. It had been made clear that, like…

  By Barat Ellman Sep 25, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  Ashkenazi Jews Are Not Khazars. Here’s The Proof.

  In 2010 I was contacted by the chief editor of a volume called “Khazars: Myth and History,” put together by the Russian Academy of Sciences. She knew my books on Ashkenazic names, and was familiar with my ongoing study of the history of Yiddish, eventually published by Oxford University Press in 2015 as “Origins of…

  By Alexander Beider Sep 25, 2017 | 6 min read
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  Opinion

  What The Shofar Tries To Tell Us About Deadly Hurricanes

  This is a magical time of year. It’s a season of renewal. Right now, folks around the world are gathering to welcome a new year, stepping outside of standard time to inhabit an ancient lunar calendar that follows the moon and the tides. It’s a fraught moment, promising new life in the year ahead even…

  By J.J. Goldberg Sep 21, 2017 | 4 min read