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
Why Jews Need To Fight Trump On Voting Rights — 53 Years After ‘Mississippi Burning’ Murders
(JTA) Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner are about the closest American Jews have to secular saints. The two Jewish civil rights workers traveled south for the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, joining the African-American activist James Chaney in canvassing black churches. All three were kidnapped and murdered by a lynch mob. Forty-three years ago next Friday, Aug. 4,…
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Opinion On Intermarriage, The Conservative Movement Is At Odds With Its Members
The current crisis in Conservative Judaism can be traced to a potentially fatal flaw that has been present in the movement since its inception: It has never been one movement. It is really two movements: The movement of its rabbis and philosophical leaders, and the movement of its constituents, the laity. For generations, this tension…
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Opinion When You Protest An Eruv, You Protest Women’s Rights
For the young Orthodox woman living in a community without an eruv boundary, motherhood comes with a high cost. The moment that newborn arrives, it’s goodbye to Sabbath mornings in synagogue, goodbye to afternoon social outings, and goodbye to nice dresses. Instead, say hello to living in a robe in a claustrophobic apartment for a…
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Opinion Chuck Schumer’s Better Deal Is Better For White Men – And No One Else
Every pundit from Boston to Seattle will tell you the state of the Democratic Party these days: It’s bad. The party got its clock cleaned in the 2016 general election and, even in the full-blown midst of the “Resistance” movement against President Donald Trump, it’s now lost four straight special elections around the country. After…
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Opinion The Al Aqsa Protests Prove That Palestinian Nonviolence Has Arrived
My dream has always been to see my people in a mass movement of nonviolent resistance. I have spent most of my adult life making this appeal to my fellow Palestinians and building the relationships we need with the international bodies who can help us. And for one of the first times in my life,…
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Opinion Beware The Jewish Republicans Who Embrace Far-Right Bigotry
If you want to understand American Jewish politics in the Donald Trump era, pay close attention to the skirmish last week between the Anti-Defamation League and Ohio Republican State Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel. It’s a foretaste of things to come. On July 18, the ADL issued a report titled “From Alt Right…
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Opinion When Did Saving Lives Become an Irrational Goal? Welcome to the 2017 Healthcare Debate
Most of the time I don’t put much stock in commenting on what other columnists have to say. (For that matter, most of the time I don’t write in first person either.) Every now and then, though, somebody puts something in print that perfectly sums up the situation we’re in, in a way that deserves…
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Opinion I’m The First Jew Banned From Israel For Supporting BDS
Long before I was barred from boarding a flight to Israel due to my political beliefs, I felt conflicted about my decision to show up at the Dulles International Airport this past Sunday. I was bound for Israel and Palestine as part of an interfaith delegation co-sponsored by my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, along…
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Opinion Hate Jared Kushner? Blame Millennials, Not Jews.
It’s official: Jared Kushner is the least popular member of the first family — by far. This may or may not have something to do with his being an Orthodox Jew, as the Forward’s editor-in-chief, Jane Eisner argued in her July 25 op-ed. But is Kushner’s religion really the guy’s most salient feature, even in…
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Opinion The Unbearable Privilege Of Being Jared Kushner
Oh, it must be such a privilege to be Jared Kushner. You only have to read Kushner’s lengthy 11-page statement that he so smartly issued yesterday morning, before appearing at a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee, for proof of the elevated plane on which the secretive senior adviser to the president operates. The…
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Opinion Jane Looking Forward: To The End Of The Land, The Ignored Poor And More
I’m going to see the play “To the End of the Land,” by David Grossman at the Lincoln Center Festival tomorrow night. Sadly, what began as an evening at the theatre has turned into a political statement. The production is a dramatization of Grossman’s brilliant but bedeviling novel exploring the connections between three Israelis who…
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In Case You Missed It
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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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Yiddish World Puppet Monty Pickle is guest on the Forward’s ‘Yiddish Word of the Day’
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Holocaust survivor event features a Rob Reiner video address — recorded just weeks before his death
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