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
Is It Wrong To Want Ultra-Orthodox Jews To Stay Out Of Your Town?
Recently, residents of Mahwah, New Jersey, noticed utility trucks driving around town, attaching strange-looking PVC piping to telephone poles. Soon they learned their purpose: the establishment of an eruv, a mysterious boundary that makes it possible for Torah-observant Jews to carry objects on the Sabbath. It’s a crucial step in making a neighborhood inviting to…
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Opinion Jews Must Stop Viewing Racial Justice Organizers As A Threat
The aftermath of the deadly white supremacist violence at the “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville over the weekend has left marginalized communities across the country traumatized. It has also resurfaced long simmering debates on racial justice brought to a head in the Trump era. The stated reason for the rally, a protest of the…
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Opinion Zionism Cannot Be Compared To Nazism — Even If Richard Spencer And JVP Say So
It was offensive enough when, in the aftermath of the deadly events in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend, the white supremacist leader Richard Spencer called himself a “white Zionist,” comparing his form of Nazism to the belief in a homeland for the Jews. It was even more distressing to read on these pages a supportive rendering…
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Opinion Stop Smearing Sebastian Gorka
White House counterterrorism advisor Sebastian Gorka has been the subject of severe criticism. With the departure of Steve Bannon from the administration, many are calling for Gorka to be fired next. A recent piece in Rolling Stone, questioned the validity of Gorka’s Ph.D. and labeled him something of a neophyte and an extremist. The Forward…
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Letters Zionism Is Nothing Like White Supremacy, No Matter What Richard Spencer Says
Days after the horrific showcase of American far-right extremism in Charlottesville, America’s leading extremist, white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, appeared on an Israeli television newscast and compared his hate-filled ideology to Jewish nationalism, declaring it “white Zionism.” Riding the waves of extremism and hate, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) staffer Naomi Dann asserted in The…
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Opinion 5 Reasons Richard Spencer Is Wrong About Israel
A few days ago, one of the white supremacist leaders of the Charlottesville, Virginia “Unite the Right” rally, Richard Spencer, was invited onto Israeli TV. He compared his own nationalist platform to Israel. “As an Israeli citizen, someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood and history and experience of…
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Opinion Who Did and Didn’t Sign Congress’s Jewish Rebuke of Trump? Why on Elvis’s Yahrzeit?
Eighteen of the 22 Jewish members of the House of Representatives signed a letter to the president, released on Thursday, decrying his obtuse and outrageous comments following the Charlottesville violence and urging him “to stand with us on the right side of history.” It was initiated by Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, who is the…
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Opinion Richard Spencer Might Be The Worst Person In America. But He Might Also Be Right About Israel
The images of Nazis and white supremacists marching in the streets of Charlottesville with torches chanting “blood and soil” shook me to my core. But so did something else that happened this week. In the aftermath of these acts of blatant racism and anti-Semitism, one of the march’s leaders, Richard Spencer, was invited onto Israeli…
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Opinion When Silence on Evil Is Evil: A GOP Leader Speaks
The most powerful statement I have heard so far on Trump’s Charlottesville Nazi fiasco came from Republican consultant Steve Schmidt, the senior strategist on John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, during an MSNBC panel discussion on Wednesday evening, August 16. It should be noted that he’s a regular commentator on MSNBC and frequently on “Real Time…
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Opinion Will Jewish Megadonors Keep Enabling Trump After Charlottesville?
It’s bad enough for an American President to defend Nazis. It’s worse when Republican lawmakers – and American Jews – continue to support that President. I’m not talking about getting people to use stronger words of condemnation; I’m talking about deeds. And I’m not talking about nameless Trump supporters. It pains me to say it,…
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Opinion This Jewish Group Has Failed to Condemn Trump’s Defense of Nazis
Our nation is reeling in the wake of President Trump’s astonishing, disgraceful comments on the events in Charlottesville on Tuesday. In his press conference, the President drew a false equivalence between white supremacists and those who protested them. In his now famous remarks, the President referred to some of the white supremacist marchers as “very…
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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
שבֿע צוקער פֿירט דעם שמועס מיט וויווי לאַקס און ביידע לייענען פֿאָר עטלעכע פֿעליעטאָנען פֿון יענע צײַטן.
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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