Opinion

• Opinion

  When Is It Okay To Call Someone A Nazi?

  The question isn’t really who has called someone else a Nazi, but who hasn’t. After decades of work educating young people about the awful history of the Nazi regime, we now reside in a world where every 7th grader (including myself, once upon a time) calls their teacher a Nazi, and where literally thousands of…

  By Steven Davidson

  5 min read
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  Opinion

  What Would Jane Austen Tell Us About Marriage Today?

  Jane Austen wrote her legendary novels on a small, twelve-sided walnut table situated by a window near the rarely used front door of her family’s cottage in the English village of Chawton. She used a quill pen with ink she may have made herself, on small sheets of writing paper that could easily be shielded…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 16, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  George W. Bush Speechwriter Slams ‘Toxic’ Trump In Washington Post Op-Ed

  Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Michael Gerson slammed President Donald Trump for his moral ambiguity as this latest scandal involving his son’s contact with a Russian lawyer unfolds. The op-ed “An administration without a conscience,” published Thursday in the Washington Post, made no reservations in labeling the contact between…

  By Michael Heckle Jul 14, 2017 | 2 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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  Opinion

  The Trump-Putin Syria Ceasefire Puts Russia On Israel’s Border

  The United States, Russia and Jordan, with Israel’s acquiescence, recently negotiated a ceasefire among warring parties in the southwest corner of Syria, an area bordering both Israel and Jordan. Presidents Trump and Putin announced the achievement at their Hamburg summit, and it took effect July 9. On the face of it, an end to the…

  By Yossi Alpher Jul 14, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why Does Sebastian Gorka Still Have A Job?

  Sebastian Gorka is making the rounds of the dreaded Mainstream Media again. For a while there, the controversial deputy assistant to President Trump — who has well-documented ties to far-right, anti-Semitic groups in Hungary — was mostly speaking before friendly audiences in front of the camera or in person. But in the last few days especially,…

  By Jane Eisner Jul 13, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  New York Times Column Takes Aim At Kushner’s Security Clearance

  In his column “All Roads Now Lead to Kushner,” published Thursday in The New York Times, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof made a very clear demand: revoke Jared Kushner’s security clearance immediately. Recent revelations that Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and then-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort met with a “Russian government attorney” in June 2016…

  By Michael Heckle Jul 13, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Far Left’s Toxic Mix Of Anti-Semitism And Misogyny Must Be Stopped

  “The British elections should be a lesson for the Democratic Party,” Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote in The New York Times less than a week after race ended. Never mind that the left-wing Labour Party actually lost to the Conservative Party, much like Hillary Clinton defeated Sanders himself in the Democratic primaries. The American left, he…

  By Liam Hoare Jul 13, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How Trump Has Driven Jewish Conservative Thinkers To Brink Of Extinction

  Over the coming years, environmental scientists will probably chronicle the many species that Donald Trump’s presidency has brought to extinction. Political scientists may add another: the conservative Jewish intellectual. I’m using the phrase in a specific way. By “intellectual,” I mean someone who traffics in ideas, not tribal or partisan loyalties. By “conservative,” I mean…

  By Peter Beinart Jul 13, 2017 | 7 min read
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  Opinion

  How Betsy DeVos Could Hurt Sexual Assault Survivors Like Me

  I hadn’t realized I was assaulted during my time at a Jewish day school until I got to college. After I experienced a series of sporadic and paralyzing panic attacks, a therapist at the University of Maryland helped me recognize that I had been sexually assaulted by someone I had thought was a good friend….

  By Rebecca Krevat Jul 13, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  American Orthodox Rabbis Don’t Trust Women By Themselves In Mikvehs. Why?

  In the past few years, the American Jewish establishment has spoken out against the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s refusal — sometimes retroactive — to recognize conversions and marriages performed by American rabbis, one of whom, most notably, oversaw the conversion of Ivanka Trump. For many American Jews, the chief rabbinate was, once again, being unnecessarily strict…

  By Shayna Zamkanei Jul 12, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Orthodoxy Is Not Victimized By The Kotel Compromise

  In his Forward column titled “Kotel Controversy Shows That U.S. Jewish Groups Don’t Represent The Orthodox,” Avi Shafran claims that the American Orthodox community has been treated like “chopped liver” in recent debates over the Western Wall and conversion law in Israel. While I acknowledge American Orthodox voices have been missing in the news coverage…

  By Josh Weinberg Jul 12, 2017 | 3 min read