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
On Monday afternoon, February 27, Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered what appeared to be his first-ever keynote address to a national Jewish organization. His host, unsurprisingly, was J Street, the self-described pro-Israel, pro-peace advocacy organization. The liberal Jewish group was holding its once-a-year national conference in Washington, D.C. The liberal Jewish senator couldn’t have asked for…
MILWAUKEE (JTA) — I was privileged recently to participate as the sole Jewish voice at a news conference with Latino leaders, community activists and faith groups at which we spoke loudly and clearly in support of compassionate immigration policies. I told the people gathered about a piece of Jewish history I had only recently discovered…
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel recently held their first face-to-face meeting in Washington. After years of combative relations between Israel and the Obama administration, the two leaders demonstrated the casual repartee of old friends. “Bibi and I have known each other a long time,” Trump said. “A smart man, a…
Thousands of Muslims recently donated more than $120,000 to help support the cleanup and restoration of hundreds of desecrated graves at the Chessed Shel Emeth cemetery in St. Louis. This grassroots effort came soon after an outpouring of American Jewish support for Muslims in the aftermath of President Trump’s recently issued Executive Order directing Federal…
Desecrating a cemetery is a particularly heinous act. This is why the Nazis deliberately dismantled Jewish cemeteries in Germany, Poland and across the swath of Europe they once controlled, using the gravestones as paved stones, forcefully telegraphing the message: We don’t honor these dead. We walk all over them. This is why states and municipalities…
([JTA](http://www.jta.org ” “JTA”)) — [(JTA](JTA](http://jta.org “(JTA”)) — Purim is a dark story marked by a crazy party. I’m still unsure why a close brush with extermination became, in the Middle Ages, an opportunity for costumes and farce, but there you have it. It’s the fifth century BCE, about a hundred years after the First…
Long before I thought of entering the rabbinate, I dreamed of becoming a journalist. I served as a reporter on my high school newspaper, and when I was in 11th grade, the local school board threatened to close our high school. I remember my heart pounding when I had to pick up the phone to…
While researching my book, “Our Fathers, Ourselves,” I spent a year interviewing nearly 100 women, ages 20 through 40, most of them successful in their fields, in a quest to explore the father-daughter bond and the evolving gender roles between women and their dads. These were the sort of women who were early to excel…
The foreign minister of Saudi Arabia said on Sunday, February 19, that 2017 “will be a year” in which “progress can be made in the Arab-Israeli conflict.” “If there is a will to do so, we know what a settlement looks like,” said the minister, Adel Al-Jubeir. “We just need the political will to do…
An intriguing take on the evolution of “Jewishness” in the Jewish state. Listen to “Season 1, Episode 4” on Spreaker. Let the world know what you think about Fault Lines – rate our episodes, and share your thoughts in a review on iTunes. Download episodes here. Subscribe to Fault Lines and listen anytime. Check out…
The Washingtonian would like you to know that they’ve dug up a “kosher expert” who believes Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump don’t keep Kosher. Reporter Jessica Sidman writes, “Based on their dining destinations, it’s safe to say that the couple isn’t strictly observant.” The magazine even went to the trouble to call several of the…
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