Opinion

• Opinion

  IfNotNow Is The Jewish Black Lives Matter

  I spent last Shabbat with students from Harvard Hillel and was reminded, again, how important a generational movement IfNotNow is becoming. I don’t think most older American Jews grasp it yet. This is our Black Lives Matter. IfNotNow is the Jewish wing of a youth-powered activist awakening that the United States has not seen since…

  By Peter Beinart

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump Acts Like A Political Pro On Climate Change — And That Should Scare Us

  There’s a strange, largely unnoticed inconsistency in the Trump administration’s approach to making and remaking policy. Don’t get me wrong — inconsistency has been the rule at nearly every juncture in the chaotic first months of Donald Trump’s presidency. From health care to immigration, from NATO to Australia to the Middle East, measures have been…

  By J.J. Goldberg Apr 3, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Studying Torah With Jailed Radical Judith Clark

  “Which part of Torah do you want to study?” I asked Judy Clark at our first meeting. The gray-haired woman leaned across the table in the visitors’ room at Bedford Hills prison and answered immediately. “Isaiah.” she said. “I need to study Isaiah.” “Why?” I wondered. “Because I was just like him, believing I had…

  By Susan Kaplow Apr 3, 2017 | 4 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson Being Jewish in America today feels like walking multiple tightropes at once

  

• Rob Eshman The righteous rabbis protesting those immigration raids in Los Angeles

  

• Nora Berman Greta Thunberg’s Gaza flotilla was never going to help Palestinians

  

• Dan Perry Don’t be grateful two hostages’ bodies were recovered. Be furious.

  

• Emily Tamkin The two things I fear most after the horrifying attack on Jews in Boulder

  

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  Opinion

  My Outlaw Cousin Who Rode With Pancho Villa Rekindled My Relationship With Judaism

  My mother never fed me spinach. She explained that it was because she was forced to eat so much of it by her mother, whose motto ran something along the lines of, “If a spoonful is good for you, a potful is even better.” Though my mother avoided making the spinach mistake with her own…

  By Susan Krawitz Apr 3, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Trump Acts A Lot Like This 16th Century Chinese Emperor

  “The Book of Judges” emphasizes the dangers of a vacant throne and recounts the hardships and tragedies that befell the Israelites “when there was no king in Israel.” Instead, a series of “judges” filled the absent king’s shoes. These judges were neither administrators nor statesmen, but rather charismatic rulers who led factions of Israelites as…

  By Ido Levy Apr 3, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  The Forward’s Paymeter: FAQ

  Our paymeter has launched and you may have questions. Here are some of the more frequently asked ones! Why should I pay to look at Forward.com? The Forward is a reader-supported non-profit publication. We’re dedicated to thoughtful, thorough, in-depth journalism and storytelling. It takes a tremendous amount of resources to maintain the standards that our…

  By Forward Staff Apr 2, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Google Must Do More To Pull The Plug On Online Hate

  For years, the Anti-Defamation League has held the clear, unwavering stance that videos made by terrorists and hate groups have no place on the internet. Hate-filled videos mislead children, poison the online experience for everyone, and serve as an unfortunate, yet effective, tool to recruit new generations of violent extremists. Now, ADL is seeing the…

  By Brittan Heller Mar 31, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  That Time I Hung Out With Carlos The Jackal — Wearing My Yarmulke

  A French court recently sentenced the world-famous terrorist Carlos The Jackal to life in prison for the third time. The crime: killing two people and injuring 34 others in 1974 when he hurled a hand grenade into a Paris shopping mall. Before the Islamic State group, before Al Qaeda, there was Carlos The Jackal. In…

  By Micah Halpern Mar 31, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Hate Passover And Why You Should, Too, If You’re Doing It Right

  I hate Passover. And I’m not alone. It’s a Holy Day as smug and stomach-hurting as Yom Kippur, but one that lasts as long as the eight oily days of Hanukkah. It’s as fraught with familial tension as a Thanksgiving turkey with one blue wing and one red wing, but, like the playoffs, you have…

  By Dan Friedman Mar 30, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I’m Not Bullish On ‘Fearless Girl’

  For two decades, I’ve passed “Charging Bull,” the iconic bronze statue that stands near Wall Street, twice every workday when I walk from the Staten Island Ferry to my office in Manhattan. Now, I have to pass her too. I was never particularly fond of the beast, which always struck me as a bronze descendant…

  Mar 30, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why A ‘Proud Self-Hating Jew’ Asked Me To Tout His Book

  The email was a blatant appeal to my ego. The subject line read “Speaking Engagement,” and the sender, who I didn’t know, was inviting me to speak about whatever I wanted to — wow! — on a New York City panel celebrating the release of a new book by “internationally acclaimed British jazz saxophonist, philosopher…

  By Donna Minkowitz Mar 30, 2017 | 4 min read