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
-
Letters
USCJ Responds to Intermarriage Proposal
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…
-
Opinion Looking For Answer To Intermarriage? Try Imagination And Experimentation
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…
-
Opinion Why This Renegade Rabbi Says He Can Marry Jews — And The Jew-ish
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…
Columnists View All
The Latest
-
Opinion After Comey Testimony, GOP Suddenly Goes Soft On Crime
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…
-
Opinion Shocking Labour ‘Win’ Shakes Up British Jews
After a tumultuous election night in the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party suffered a crushing blow at the hands of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, losing its majority in Parliament. The surprising shift in the British political landscape leaves the country with no clear majority party. While May expressed plans to stay in…
-
Opinion Israel-Palestine Partisan Rhetoric Is Like Mad Libs
Comment boards for any article pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can prove perilous. No matter who is badmouthing who as a bloodthirsty, racist terrorist, the partisans on both sides, while repeating tired lines ad nauseam, ironically employ the same exact rhetoric — with the exception of a few words and phrases. It’s a lot like…
-
Opinion Jewish Commentators Analyze The Comey Hearings
As the dust settles following James Comey’s highly-anticipated Senate hearing, many commentators are trying to decipher the content of Comey’s testimony and what it foretells about the investigation into the Trump campaign’s links to Russia. Here is what some prominent Jewish writers have said so far. Andrew Rosenthal, New York Times: “‘Lordy, I Hope There…
-
Opinion During Six-Day War, Israeli Leaders Were Divided About Capturing Old City
Cabinet ministers driving up to Jerusalem late on the afternoon of June 5, the first day of the Six-Day War, to attend a meeting in the Knesset found their cars incongruously mixed in with an armored column heading for battle. A few miles before Jerusalem, the traffic sorted itself out — the tanks and half-tracks…
-
Opinion Elie Wiesel’s Son Remembers His Father’s Love And Compassion
As the first anniversary of the death of Elie Wiesel approaches, his only child, Elisha Wiesel, reflected on the gifts his father left for him in an essay published by Jewish Week. The essay, in which Wiesel also revealed his conflicts with the acclaimed writer (and former staffer of the Forverts) and Holocaust survivor as…
-
Opinion This Week In Anti-Semitism: Arson, Slurs, And A Weaponized Basketball
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. In the UK, the 16-year old daughter of a Jewish chaplain…
-
Opinion Common Ground: Jews And Muslims Join Together In These Touching Photos
On a recent Friday, members of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) arrived at the Islamic Center at New York University in ponchos and rain boots. They dried their laminated signs that read, “Jewish New Yorkers support our Muslim neighbors,” and greeted worshippers attending the weekly Jummah Prayer. Since the first Friday after the election of…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The Iran war ended terribly for the US, and even worse for Israel
- 2
Film & TV In ‘Disclosure Day,’ Steven Spielberg finds himself at odds with Jewish thought about aliens
- 3
Opinion Cultural boycotts of Israel just reached peak absurdity
- 4
Culture ‘My mayor Muslim, my bagel Jewish’ — the Knicks chant capturing New York’s soul
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The latest victim of the culture war over Israel is a leftwing, lapsed Catholic Bible scholar
-
Fast Forward Antisemitic incidents in Germany remained elevated in 2025, fueled by rise-in far-right cases
-
Culture The manosphere says women owe their husbands sex — Judaism says the opposite
-
Fast Forward Georgia’s Jewish senator called his newly minted GOP opponent an antisemite. Why?