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
How The Obsession With Jewish Continuity Perverts Our Liberal Values
This week, we found out from sociologist Steven Cohen that the worlds of Reform and Conservative Judaism are disappearing into blackness — almost literally. Their scant replacement numbers are being demographically dwarfed by the masses of Orthodox children, and a generation down the line the American Jewish population will have drastically shifted its religious affiliation….
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Opinion The ‘Orthodox Explosion’ Is Not About Numbers — It’s About Our Values
A recent article in these pages by sociologist Steven Cohen and others concluded, based on the Pew Research Center’s findings, that in 40 years, far fewer American Jews will identify as Conservative and Reform, and far more will identify as Orthodox. While the authors wrote of this as a “jarring” trend, it is hardly surprising…
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Opinion Does Orthodox Explosion Signal Doom For Conservative And Reform?
In the next 20-40 years, we will witness dramatic changes in the American Jewish population. The changes won’t be in overall size, but in how many Jews are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and nondenominational. In 2013, the Pew Research Center’s study of Jewish Americans revealed much about the future of American Jewry. We recently plotted the…
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Opinion Jared Kushner, Israel And The Enduring Power Of ‘Whiteness’
Ta-Nehisi Coates has published a new essay. It’s about Donald Trump and the enduring power of whiteness in American politics. It doesn’t mention Israel. But it explains a lot about the American Israel debate, and why it may change. The American Jewish establishment’s dominance of the Israel debate in Washington has never been more complete….
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Opinion No, The Voynich Manuscript Hasn’t Been Decoded. Here’s Why These Failures Persist.
Last week there was a high-profile story in the Times Literary Supplement claiming that the mysterious Voynich Manuscript had been deciphered. The Voynich Manuscript has long bedevilled would-be code crackers. It is a handwritten book in an as yet undeciphered language. It’s a couple of hundred pages long, containing text interspersed with images ranging from…
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Opinion Jane Looking Forward: The Smear Against David Myers Has Failed (So Far)
Welcome back to Jane Looking Forward a little more than a week before the High Holidays. Remember, if you wish to continue reading this weekly newsletter, sign up here. And please share with your friends and community! It appears that the campaign to oust David Myers from his new position as president and CEO of…
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Opinion The Radical Class Divide In My Modern Orthodox High School
This essay is part of our ongoing series, Outside the Bubble: Class and Inequality in the Jewish Community. It explores the class divides in Jewish communities of all denominations, and the financial struggles belonging to these communities can incur. Please email your thoughts and essays to [email protected]. Kids don’t understand class. As a baal teshuva…
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Opinion I Am A Maharat. The O.U. Thinks I’m The Biggest Threat To The Jews.
I don’t know that I will ever get used to the fact that I make some people uncomfortable. Partially because there is very little that is imposing about me. I am not particularly tall, nor do I appear to be particularly strong. Yet, as an Orthodox Jewish woman who has been ordained as clergy, I…
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Opinion Why Yair Netanyahu’s Anti-Semitic Hatred Is So Bad For The Jews
Yair Netanyahu’s astonishingly anti-Semitic cartoon was, as some American Jews might say, a shonda for the goyim. Whatever rationalizations are concocted to justify the fact that the son of the Prime Minister of Israeli disseminated anti-Jewish imagery, the embarrassment was undeniable. Anti-Semites like David Duke may be kvelling, but those who care for Israel turned…
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Opinion The Paradox Of Jared Kushner, A ‘Man Without Qualities’
Seventy-five years ago, Robert Musil died in Switzerland. The Austrian writer had taken refuge there in 1938 with his Jewish wife Martha, and as the war progressed, he spent his time trying to make ends meet and to complete his novel, “The Man Without Qualities.” Neither effort was successful: Musil’s life ended in poverty when…
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Opinion How 23andMe Fell For Anti-Semitic ‘Khazar’ Canard
For geneticists, like me, genetic testing has always been a game of trust. We can test people’s DNA to learn about their ancestries, relatives, disease predispositions and crimes. We geneticists do genetic testing after providing counseling that explores the process and outcome. In turn, we request consent to proceed. One of my common questions is,…
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Opinion The Gaza hostage crisis could forever change how American Jews relate to Israel — but it’s not too late to fix that
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Yiddish ווידעאָ: היסטאָריקערין וויווי לאַקס באַשרײַבט געשיכטע פֿון לאָנדאָנער ייִדישער פּרעסעVIDEO: Historian Vivi Laks tells history of the London Yiddish Press
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