In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
To pitch an opinion piece, email our Opinion Editor, Talya Zax.
Opinion
Fault Lines Episode 10: Israel and the Conflict Listen to Peter Beinart and Daniel Gordis parse the Israeli conflict. The issues are vast and the opinions fly over the course of this conversation. Learn about the historic issues that plague the region. Can this conflict ever be resolved? Is it possible for President Donald Trump…
This time last year, Britain’s Labour Party was having another leadership contest and they held a town hall in London for Jewish voters. There, Jeremy Corbyn affirmed Israel’s right to exist but then dodged questions about anti-Semitism within the party. His opponent, Owen Smith, criticized him for “downplaying and ignoring” specific cases of anti-Jewish hatred….
In his recent proposal to marry Jews and non-Jews under certain circumstances, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie explores a phenomenon of modern life in which non-Jews are inspired to participate in very positive ways in the life of the Jewish community out of their love of the Jews in their families. There is broad agreement that these…
‘Are Jews white?” is, no doubt, the strangest controversy spawned by “Wonder Woman,” the new hit movie starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot. It’s a debate that I, as a Russian-born American Jew, find both surreal (probably because it would have never occurred to me to regard myself as nonwhite) and disturbing. Partly, that’s because the…
As a reader of the digital version of the Forward, I learned of the Jewish Voice for Peace ad in the June 2nd print edition, supporting imprisoned Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, through a news release from the Jewish News Service. In a “Note to Our Readers” on The Forward’s editorial page, publisher Rachel Fishman Fedderson…
Ladino, the language of Sephardic Jews, also represents a culture that has survived hundreds of years and is still relevant today. And more people need to know about it. Ladino is a pan-Mediterranean language that crosses geographic, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Otherwise known as Judeo-Spanish, Ladino is the hybrid dialect that Jews from the Iberian…
The title of your article “Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown Scolds ZOA For Praising Steve Bannon” is absolutely inaccurate and misleading. Senator Brown never “scolded” the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA). He made no negative statement about ZOA. At the ZOA luncheon, Brown merely voiced his erroneous opinions that the Trump Administration and Mr. Bannon are…
Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie’s research, analysis and essay on officiating at an interfaith wedding is interesting. It is clear that his proposal comes from a place of thoughtfulness and love of Judaism, the Jewish people and those connected to them. Rabbi Lau-Lavie, like all of us, is struggling with our generation’s most complex problem: how do…
Responding to the 72 percent intermarriage rate among Conservative, Reform and other non-Orthodox-raised Jews; how can rabbis – and more broadly, “The Jewish World” – convey two seemingly contradictory messages? First, we (rabbis, parents, institutions, friends, etc.) want to say that whoever you marry, we want you to be deeply engaged in Jewish life. Not…
Early in my career as a journalist, a brilliant editor encouraged me and other reporters to look for the stories that “oozed” — the ones that are found just below the surface — because day-to-day news can obscure deeper and more significant trends. Among Orthodox Jews, the oozing story of our day is the emergence…
Every so often you’ll be watching some ordinary public event — a high school play, a hockey game, congressional testimony by a former FBI director — and suddenly something seems off-kilter. At first you think you’ve imagined it, but the feeling won’t go away. Sometimes it remains a mystery. At other times the truth hits…
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