Opinion

• Opinion

  Harvey Is Biblical For Me And My Family — But Not For The Reason You Think

  This morning I took a break from clearing my yard of the tree limbs and debris to google the name of the storm that caused the damage, along with the adjective “biblical”. The number of links that appeared—nearly seven million—rivaled the magnitude of the event. No doubt, many have nothing to do with the event…

  By Robert Zaretsky

  3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jane Looking Forward: What’s The Meaning Of Well-Meaning Protests?

  Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward! We’re now in the last week of summer vacations, with Rosh Hashanah fast approaching. If you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, sign up here. And spread the word! Earlier this year, the Fourth Universalist Church, a progressive congregation on a lovely corner of Central Park West, was…

  By Jane Eisner Aug 30, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Hillel’s Merger With The David Project Will Leave Many Students Out In The Cold

  When I started college, I excitedly and optimistically began attending Hillel events. I had been raised in a proud, secular Jewish family with a rich intellectual and academic tradition. I was taught that to be Jewish was to read, learn voraciously, and question everything. When I graduated high school and went to Penn State, I…

  By Emily Strauss Aug 29, 2017 | 3 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 precise, Chekhovian logic guided Israel’s strike on Iran — but chaos could come next

  

• Nora Berman Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians

  

• Dan Perry Celebrating my daughter’s birthday in a bomb shelter, as missiles struck Tel Aviv

  

• Emily Tamkin Trump’s latest move makes Mahmoud Khalil a Joseph for our times

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  The Writing On The Wall: Signs Of Occupation In Hebron

  I was born in the ancient Palestinian city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank in a home around the corner from the entrance to Shuhada Street, the main thoroughfare and marketplace in the city. The name of our neighborhood was Bab el-Khan. Today, hanging on the stone walls of my old Bab el-Khan neighborhood…

  By Issa Amro Aug 29, 2017 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  No, We Absolutely Should Not Make Friends With Nazis

  The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia left most Americans shocked, upset, and looking for answers. The most pressing issue at hand was certainly what is the correct response to neo-Nazis. While President Trump’s inability to condemn the white supremacists was clearly not the right response, another suggestion emerged from these pages suggesting that…

  By Noah Baron Aug 28, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Jared Kushner Just Made A Huge Blunder On Peace In The Middle East

  Last week, Jared Kushner and various other Trump administration officials met with Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas reportedly urged the Americans to publicly endorse the two-state solution. The Americans refused. The reason, according to The Washington Post, is that Kushner and company believe “that it is down to the two sides, not them, to…

  By Peter Beinart Aug 28, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Letters

  The ZOA Has Criticized President Trump Plenty

  To the Letters Editor, The leftwing J Street’s Director of Communications has written a breathtakingly inaccurate and careless screed against ZOA, falsely claiming we are an “ultra partisan” group advocating for Trump which refuses to criticize him. Yet, your own newspaper’s Nathan Guttman verified this as a phony allegation by writing on May 15 an…

  By Morton A. Klein Aug 28, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Hypocrisy Of The Jewish Left’s Response to Charlottesville

  The anti-Trump left has become the great defender of Jews the world over. This is at least what Jewish progressives want you to believe. But if you look closely, the kind of thought policing coming from those corners clashes with the moral authority they claim to possess. In the preachy, Jew-shaming that has become all…

  By Nachama Soloveichik Aug 28, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  I Was Forced To Lift My Skirt To Pray At The Kotel

  It was Wednesday morning of finals week. The thought of waking up at 5:30 AM was not the most thrilling of thoughts; but, Rosh Chodesh aligns with the cycle of the moon, not with the cycle of my school year. I had committed to welcoming in Elul at the Kotel with my Hebrew Union College-Jewish…

  By Jenna Mark Aug 25, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Netanyahu Is Abandoning American Jews — Because He Can

  Several days after the First Zionist Congress concluded in 1897, Theodor Herzl, the founding father of Zionism, assessed its effect in his diary. “At Basel, I founded the Jewish State,” he wrote, referring to the Swiss site of the meeting. “If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps…

  By Samuel G. Freedman Aug 25, 2017 | 10 min read
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  Opinion

  Why The Rush To Tear Down Grant’s Tomb Is Ignorant

  As Confederate monuments tumble across the United States, it comes as no surprise that other longstanding monuments now face closer scrutiny. On Tuesday, a Jewish organization named Shurat Hadin called for the removal of statues to New Amsterdam’s disabled governor, Peter Stuyvesant, on the grounds that he was “an extreme racist who targeted Jews and…

  By Jonathan Sarna Aug 24, 2017 | 4 min read