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
Did Netanyahu help torpedo the Iran deal — two years ago?
Two and a half years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a provocative speech before the U.S. Congress, denouncing the pending agreement to curtail Iran’s nuclear program. “Denounce” may be too kind a word here. Actually, he trashed it, employing every emotional weapon at his disposal. He said the agreement could threaten the very…
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Opinion There Are No Adults In The White House. Worse, There Are No Mensches
The meaning of the Yiddish word “mensch” can scarce be conveyed in English. Literally a man, mensch means so much more than that. But it means so much more than that. A mensch is a good man, someone who can be relied upon to do the right thing. A mensch has integrity. He (or she!)…
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Letters We Have No Right To Decide Israelis’ Fate
Dear Editor, After reading articles on the divisions among Jewish people over Israel, Zionism, settlements and the like, I have one question: Why does it really matter? There has been an elephant in the room since Israel was established. At no time since it’s inception have the Muslim states ever agreed to live with Israel…
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Opinion The Nazis Were Far Worse Than Communists — Just Ask My Mother
In the winter of 1944-45 the Soviet Red Army surrounded the Hungarian capital of Budapest and began the bloody work of taking over the city. Even then, as they fought desperately for their own survival, the Germans and their Hungarian allies did not waver in their determination to annihilate Budapest’s Jewish population. Unable to deport…
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Opinion Raphael Golb Is Facing Jail Time — For Parodying a Dead Sea Scrolls Scholar
In July of 2008, a lawyer and literary scholar named Raphael Golb created an email account named after Lawrence Schiffman, a professor who studies the Dead Sea Scrolls. From [email protected], Golb sent a slew of emails in which, writing as Schiffman, he “admitted” to having plagiarized the work of another Dead Sea Scrolls professor named…
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Opinion If Jews kvell over our Nobel laureates, do we have to atone for our Harvey Weinsteins?
The other day I listened to an NPR interview with Dick Thaler, the 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in Economics Science. I was duly impressed with his intellect and manner, and I soon found myself wondering whether he was Jewish. Over 40% of the economics prize laureates have been Jewish. But identifying Nobel Prize winners as…
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Opinion How Trump’s Birth Control Policy Tramples Jewish Women’s Religious Liberty
On Friday October 6th, President Donald Trump’s administration enabled employers to opt-out of providing contraceptive coverage as a part of their healthcare plan if they claim a religious or moral objection to doing so. The ruling was in line with something the president said five months ago, when he promised that “we will not allow…
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Opinion My play was Just canceled because I’m the wrong kind of Jew
I felt so hopeful when the American Jewish Historical Society said they wanted to mount a performance of my new play, “Rubble Rubble.” As a Jewish anti-Zionist playwright in a politically conservative Jewish institutional landscape, I have grown accustomed to feeling unwelcome in Jewish spaces. I am not the only one. Any Jew who opposes…
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Opinion On The Jewish Community’s Shameful Silence About Israel’s Arms To Myanmar
Three weeks ago, an organization called JACOB — the Jewish Alliance of Concern Over Burma — co-sponsored a rally in front of the United Nations. The reason: The government of Myanmar (Burma’s current name) is slaughtering its Muslim minority, the Rohingya, on a vast scale. As many as 400,000 Rohingya have fled their homes. Forty…
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Opinion Why Jews Especially Should Respect Trump’s Birth Control Rollback
Last week, the Trump administration decided to rollback the 2010 Obamacare mandate on birth control, which required employers to cover birth control as part of their healthcare plans. According to the new rules from the Trump Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services, employers can now request exemptions from providing birth control if doing so…
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Opinion What Just Happened to Jemele Hill Happened to Me — Over Israel
Jemele Hill, an ESPN reporter, has been feuding with Donald Trump on Twitter for the better part of a month. It began early in September when Hill tweeted, Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists. — Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 11, 2017 In response, the White House…
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