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
My Fellow Pro-Israel Jews: You Got What You Wanted, But You Paid Too Much.
Dear Pro- Trump, Pro-Israel supporters, Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Yesterday, the president declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. He didn’t use the word “undivided”, but he did promise to one day move the embassy to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was my home for three years. Israel was my parent’s home until they moved to the…
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Opinion These BDS-Supporting British Jewish Students Are Changing Their Community
Israel is a controversial issue in Britain and Jewish students are feeling its ramifications. The British Union of Jewish Students, the sole body that exists to represent Jewish Students in the UK, has always run social and religious programming. But its raison d‘etre has long been defending Israel on campus. Since Zionism became hegemonic amongst…
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Opinion Trump’s Jerusalem Move Is A Ploy To Protect Jared Kushner
Yesterday, President Donald Trump did the incomprehensible: He recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Never have the divisions been more clear-cut. The entire Arab world and the rest of the international community have opposed, condemned or expressed grave concern about Trump’s Jerusalem recognition announcement. So did the American Jewish and Israeli peace camps. All…
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Opinion Thank You Trump For Speaking The Truth. Jerusalem Is Our Beating Heart.
After my third son, Lev, was born, he had complications and I stayed with him at Hadassah Hospital. In the room on my right I could hear an ultra-Orthodox woman singing in Yiddish to her infant. On my left, a Palestinian woman murmured in Arabic to her tiny son. The machinery hooked to him kept…
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Opinion It’s Time To Stop Singing Shlomo Carlebach’s Songs
I can’t walk into any synagogue in America – and barely any synagogue in the world – without hearing songs written by the man who sexually assaulted my mother. That’s because my mom is one of the many of girls and young women whom Shlomo Carlebach sexually harassed, assaulted or abused while he traveled the…
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Opinion Should We Still Be Singing Shlomo Carlebach’s Songs In The #MeToo Era?
Though Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach has been dead for nearly as long as I’ve been alive, his music and ethos still echo throughout American Jewish communal life and liturgy. Carlebach’s music is almost childishly simple, often utilizing only a few easy chords and repeating a few short verses in Hebrew. In the right environment, it can…
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Opinion I Was An IDF Soldier During The First Intifada. It Changed Me Forever
This Saturday marks an important anniversary in Israeli history: 30 years since the First Intifada. For years leading up to the Intifada, which literally means dustup or uprising in Arabic, Israel had maintained Gaza as a pool of cheap labor. Tension had been building since 1985, when Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s “iron fist” policy resulted…
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Opinion Why Trump’s Jerusalem Gambit Will Only Hurt Israel
On its face, Donald Trump’s speech on Wednesday announcing that America would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital seemed entirely reasonable. “Today,” he declared, “We finally acknowledge the obvious. That Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality.” Yes, Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. That is obvious. But something else…
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Opinion When It Comes To Jerusalem, Trump Needs To Learn How To Share
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, please subscribe here. And spread the word! Donald Trump promised that he would move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as one of his earliest acts as president. Like so very many things this man has said…
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Opinion Will The Flynn-Kushner-Israel Sideshow Hurt American Jews?
Because he’s playing three-dimensional chess, it’s easy to forget what special prosecutor Robert Mueller is really after. He’s investigating the suspicion that the Donald Trump for President campaign actively colluded with Russia in its effort to undermine the election. Everything else is secondary to that investigation. Anyone incidentally run over by that train is just…
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Opinion Jared Kushner Was Wrong To Undermine America — Even To Help Israel
I am not certain which is more troubling: reading reports that Jared Kushner — before he became the most powerful Jew in the White House, when he was just the president-elect’s powerful son-in-law — secretly worked to persuade Russia to defy the Obama administration and stop a United Nations resolution condemning Israel for its settlement…
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Fast Forward Unarmed man who tackled Bondi Beach Hanukkah attacker identified as Ahmed al-Ahmed
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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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Fast Forward Hanukkah shooting leaves at least 15 dead at Australia’s most popular beach
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Fast Forward Father and son suspects in Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack identified as Sajid and Naveed Akram by law enforcement
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Antisemitism Decoded Some people are learning the wrong lessons from Ahmed al Ahmed
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Fast Forward At White House Hanukkah party, Trump says Congress ‘is becoming antisemitic’
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