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
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Opinion
The Temple Mount Crisis Seems to Be Over. What Have We Learned?
Three weeks after the murder of two Israeli policemen on the Temple Mount esplanade by three Israeli Arab Islamists, the crisis appears to be over. There is still a standoff in Israel’s relations with Jordan—a derivative of the Temple Mount incident that involved the shooting by an Israeli security guard of two Jordanians. Then too,…
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Opinion 19 People Jews Should Worry About More Than Linda Sarsour
You may be familiar with Linda Sarsour, an activist who rose to prominence as one of the leaders of the Women’s March. Sarsour has a lot of supporters. But she also has her fair share of detractors. Sarsour has been repeatedly isolated as a harbinger of hate and violence, most recently in a New York…
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Opinion Orthodox Judge Blames Religious School System for Overdose
The Orthodox community was rattled last month when 20-year old Malky Klein, daughter of Avrohom and Rifka Klein of Boro Park, died of a heroine overdose. Social media flooded with tearful reflection. A podcast interview with Klein’s father went viral. A video tribute to the young woman got 28,000 views within a week. Over $250,000…
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Opinion The Rise and Fall of American Jewish Hope
For six months of this year, from June to November, we Jews will be caught in a symbolically fraught interlude in our history. We are officially betwixt the 50th anniversary of the Six-Day War of June 5, 1967, and the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of November 2, 1917. They are two events that…
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Opinion I Wrote About The Opioid Crisis In The Jewish Community. The Response Was Overwhelming.
Yesterday, I published a piece in these pages on the opioid epidemic and how it has affected the Jewish community. When I shared the piece on social media, I explained what has drawn me to covering this crisis. When I was 19 years old and a sophomore in college, my father committed suicide. We discovered…
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Opinion It’s Time To Admit That The Opioid Crisis Is Also A Jewish One
Earlier this month, the 5 Towns Jewish Times published a shocking statistic: Since October 2016, over 100 young people from New York’s Orthodox community had died from drug overdoses. One 10-day span saw five deaths. “It is a scourge that is inflicting our community in a most shocking and unexpected way,” the author of the…
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Opinion This Day in 1492, Spanish Jews Were Expelled — and Columbus Set Sail
This date — August 1 on the Gregorian calendar, coinciding with the 9th day of Av 5777 on the Hebrew calendar — marks a very significant juncture in Jewish and world history. It was on this day in 1492 that Jews were expelled from Spain, bringing a dramatic and brutal end to what had once…
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Opinion Jane Looking Forward: To Cuss Or Not To Cuss, JNF And More
In the one story published by the Forward last week about (now former) White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, we didn’t cuss. We didn’t have to. The story was about a biblical reference to Cain and Abel that Scaramucci made on CNN, the closest we came to a Jewish angle of the R-rated reality show…
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Opinion Why Are We Still Fasting On Tisha B’Av? Even The Rabbis Of The Talmud Were Over It.
On the list of Things a Good Jew Should Do, fasting on Tisha B’Av ranks pretty low on my list. Now, before my rabbi has a minor heart attack, I should confess that despite my misgivings, like many observant Jews around the world, I will be refraining from eating, drinking, bathing, wearing leather shoes and…
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Opinion No, Jewish Republicans Aren’t About to Join the Alt Right
In an opinion essay that appeared recently on these pages, my colleague Peter Beinart described the tiff that broke out in mid-July between the Anti-Defamation League and Ohio state treasurer Josh Mandel, a prominent Jewish Republican politician. The tiff revolved around an ADL research report issued July 18. Titled “From Alt Right to Alt Lite:…
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Opinion 8 Jewish Lesbians Who Should Run For Office
A recent New York Times column by Frank Bruni discussed a surprising finding: lesbian women have surprising electoral success in the United States. The Victory Fund, which supports L.G.B.T. candidates, crunched the numbers and found that lesbians win 70 percent of their races. With the gay future ever so bright, here are several Jewish lesbians…
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