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
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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….
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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…
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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…
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Opinion We Need To Start Befriending Neo Nazis
What I’m about to suggest in this column is something I’m not sure I have the moral fortitude to actually carry out in my own adult life. But before I share this perhaps painfully naive idea, I’d like to tell you a story from my childhood. Riding the bus one afternoon, a girl in another…
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Opinion How Your Favorite #NeverTrump Republicans Planted Seeds Of His Rise To Power
If you have been watching or reading liberal media spaces over the past two years, you’ve seen them: the anti-Trump Republicans. These are folks who were vehemently anti-Obama for the last eight years, and George W. Bush supporters before that, but just could not get on board with Trump. These ostensibly reasonable conservatives have become…
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Opinion The Orthodox Obsession With Being Skinny Has To Stop
I grew up with parents that loved me, a roof over my head, and everything I needed to be happy. But when I look back at my childhood, one thing overwhelms everything else: the overwhelming shame, hatred, and disgust that I had about the size of my body. Growing up I was told that I…
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Opinion The One Thing Jews Should Be Doing To Combat White Supremacy
What did you feel when you heard the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, chant, “Jews will not replace us?” Fear, of course. Bewilderment, perhaps anger. But I bet a lot of Jews felt another emotion, which they’re less likely to articulate in public: snobbery. “Replace you? Where, behind the counter at Wendy’s? We’re successful, industrious, upper-middle…
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