Opinion

• Opinion

  Will It Take Another 9/11 For Us To Treat Each Other Decently Again?

  For weeks after September 11, 2001, police cordoned off the West Side of Manhattan below 14th Street. You could bypass the barricades only if you lived in the area, as I do, or if you worked as a first responder or as a reporter. At a time when a giant plume of dark, acrid-smelling smoke…

  By David Wallis

  4 min read
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  Opinion

  How A Rock-Climbing Harness Is Like A Set of Tefillin

  This article was first published in The Forward on May 21, 1999. The terrain reminded me of the Negev, especially as I gazed out over it from high above the desert floor: coarse sand, prickly shrubs, sandstone cliffs. A rope was the only thing that protected me from injury or death. I was leading a…

  By Niles Goldstein May 12, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Donald Trump, Read The Bible: You Are Not Above The Law

  No, the Tuesday Afternoon Massacre is not quite the same as the Saturday Night Massacre. Comey-gate isn’t Watergate. Donald Trump isn’t Richard Nixon. And America is not suddenly embroiled in a constitutional crisis. So far, thank goodness, the Constitution seems to be okay. But the stunning dismissal of FBI Director James Comey should send chills…

  By Jane Eisner May 12, 2017 | 3 min read

Columnists View All

• Alyssa Katz What I learned at a Holocaust survivors’ Purim party

  

• Rob Eshman A gunman attacked a Michigan synagogue. Here’s what happens to the community next

  

• Dan Perry Trump’s Iran dithering puts Israel in an unprecedented position

  

• Emily Tamkin Gavin Newsom just confirmed the demise of the Democratic party’s support for Israel

  

• Jay Michaelson We are talking past one another on Zionism

  

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  Opinion

  Europe Dodges A Bullet, But Far Right Dangers Remain

  The outpouring of international relief over the French far right failing to seize the presidency says a lot about the febrile nature of modern Western politics. Europe has dodged a bullet, and the victory of Emmanuel Macron is, in the broader sense at least, a sign of the strength of the liberal status quo. It’s…

  By Peter Apps (Reuters) May 12, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  This Week In Anti-Semitism: Attacks Against Jews Rise Even In Polite Canada

  The Forward regularly monitors the surge of anti-Semitism across the country and around the world. The mission of this column is not to unduly alarm, but rather to raise awareness of a disturbing trend that, from some vantage points, can prove difficult to spot. Though he’s not even Jewish, Emmanuel Macron is not immune to…

  By Steven Davidson May 11, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Bad For The Jews: What Would Have Happened If Israel Lost The Six Day War?

  Despite the effectiveness of my daily beta blocker in controlling the work of my heart, my blood pressure rose to astronomical heights with my growing anger as I read the two consecutive articles and their misplaced emphasis on and sympathy for the Arab feelings of inadequacy and regret arising from their failure to destroy Israel…

  By Sheldon F. Gottlieb May 11, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Hate Mother’s Day, And Why All Women Should Hate It, Too

  A wise man told me never to eat a meal prepared by someone who brags about washing his hands. His point was clear: You can’t trust someone who takes unusual pride in achieving a commonplace, because it suggests that for him it’s actually an extraordinary occurrence. It suggests that something that should happen every day…

  By Dan Friedman May 10, 2017 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  My Father’s Heroic Sacrifice To Retake Jerusalem In 1967

  I never really met my father, Rami Wald. I was only 10 months old when he was killed fighting for Ammunition Hill, the strategic hilltop held by the Jordanians during the Six Day War. I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to piece together what happened the day my father, a paratrooper and captain…

  By Alon Wald May 10, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Memories Of The Six-Day War Still Haunt Many Palestinians

  Leila Awawdeh felt like a mother to me. Yes, she is Palestinian, a devout Muslim woman in her late 50s. And when I met her, I was a 22-year-old Jewish New Yorker, traveling around the region to interview locals for a book project. But on the streets of Hebron’s Old City, her calm, quiet voice…

  By Steven Davidson May 10, 2017 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  What The GOP Health Care Bill Says About A Sick Country

  It’s all too easy to understate the harm done to America by the House of Representatives on May 4, when the House narrowly passed the so-called American Health Care Act. The cobbled-together bill, the Republicans’ first concrete step toward unraveling Obamacare, won’t end up becoming law. Unfortunately, considerable damage has already been done — to…

  By J.J. Goldberg May 10, 2017 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Jewish College Students Aren’t Losing Their Religion

  In a recent analysis of U.S. religious groups, the Pew Research Center reported that the most educated American Jews are also the least religious. In considering these findings, it’s tempting to think that secular education leads to assimilation among American Jews (I want to be clear that Pew, a leading source of data on contemporary…

  By Laurence Kotler-Berkowitz May 10, 2017 | 4 min read