Opinion

• 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

  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

Columnists View All

• Jay Michaelson What can really be done to prevent antisemitic attacks like Bondi Beach?

  

• Rob Eshman Australia shooting terrifies Jews worldwide — and strengthens the case for Israel

  

• Nora Berman Did crypto-Jews invent the modern tarot deck?

  

• Dan Perry The 3 responses to the Bondi Beach Hanukkah attack that could make Jews safer

  

• Emily Tamkin The fundamental miscalculation behind the GOP’s antisemitism crisis

  

The Latest

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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
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  Letters

  Jack Rosenthal: An Appreciation

  I was travelling in Italy when I received an e-mail on May 7 from Jack Rosenthal. The subject line simply said, “Illness” – enough to make me shudder. And sure enough, the first sentence of his message got right to the point: “I’ve just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.” Fifteen weeks later, Jack was gone….

  By Stephen B. Shepard Aug 24, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  When It Comes To The Middle East, Liberals Need To Be Trump’s Biggest Cheerleaders

  On Wednesday night, Jared Kushner, along with Jason Greenblatt and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell, arrived in Israel ostensibly seeking what President Trump has taken to calling “the ultimate deal” between Israel and Palestine. Liberals may be tempted to mock these efforts at best and to hope they will fail at worst. But these…

  By Abe Silberstein Aug 24, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  As a Religious Zionist, My First Encounter With A Palestinian Changed My Life

  In a well-lit basement room in the East Jerusalem neighborhood Sheikh Jarrah, a group of kids and adults are standing in a circle tossing a ball. This group is made up of seventh graders — Muslim, Christian and Jewish — all residents of Jerusalem; their parents and counselors are also present. I am in the…

  By Nava Levine-Coren Aug 24, 2017 | 5 min read