Opinion

• Opinion

  When Children Are Our Riches, We Prosper

  It’s tempting to attribute the remarkable American Jewish demographic changes taking place to a simple matter of birthrates: Orthodox Jews tend to have many children, and non-Orthodox Jews fewer; some, none at all. A population like the non-Orthodox one, in which the average number of children per woman is fewer than 2.1, is below replacement…

  2 min read
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  Opinion

  The Success of Orthodoxy Comes From Expectations and Responsibility

  The differences between Orthodox Judaism and alternative streams are many, but, put simply, they revolve around a difference in expectations and the importance of feelings. For better or worse, life inside Orthodox Judaism is filled with expectations that are set out clearly by one’s neighbors, classmates and rabbis, not to mention bubbes, from childhood until…

  By Bethany Mandel Dec 19, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  Progressive Jews Need Torah in Intermarriage Fight

  Steven Cohen’s statistics about the demographic decline of the non-Orthodox are at once sobering and depressing. On one level, this is a period of genuine ferment and creativity in parts of the liberal Jewish world. Yet on another, more basic level, the liberal movements are in demographic free-fall, and they show no signs of turning…

  By Shai Held Dec 19, 2016 | 2 min read

Columnists View All

• Jodi Rudoren This is my last column as editor of the Forward

  

• Jay Michaelson American Jews were played — now what?

  

• Rob Eshman I have the answer to Jon Stewart’s toughest question about Israel

  

• Nora Berman ‘Eddington’ is full of conspiracy theories but it’s not about Jews. Or is it?

  

• Dan Perry Recognizing a Palestinian state is a great way to doom Palestinians

  

• Emily Tamkin Is starvation in Gaza really Israel’s fault? The facts are clear

  

The Latest

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  Opinion

  What Does It Mean To Be a ‘Jewish Funder’?

  The corner bar on my street is taking a tithe. Its sidewalk chalkboard announces that 10% of all weekend income in December will be donated to the American Civil Liberties Union. The bar is on to something. Amid all the uncertainty of this new political era, one thing is certain: Whatever our social values may…

  By Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips Dec 19, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why I Detest Hanukkah, and Why All Right Minded Jews Should Too

  Even a curmudgeon couldn’t hate Hanukkah, right? A miracle of light in the winter? The little festival that could? But if you look at it closer, it’s the little festival that could… could do what? Could celebrate the victory of fundamentalist zealots over a tolerant cosmopolitan Empire, slaughtering co-religionists on the way? Could encourage the…

  By Dan Friedman Dec 19, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  How I Fell in Love With Tacky Hanukkah Sweaters

  (JTA) — Ever since I moved to the U.S. from Israel, every late November felt like the beginning of a month-long assault. Every store, business and doctor’s office blared Christmas songs, streets were decorated with ostentatious light shows and seemingly everything became green and red — which, as an art school grad, I found personally…

  By Lior Zaltzman Dec 19, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Letters

  We Need NGOs To Secure Our Civil Rights

  In 1951, thirteen parents from Topeka, Kansas filed a class action lawsuit to allow their children to attend public schools closest to their homes. The result was a landmark Supreme Court case we now know as Brown vs. Board of Education, which overturned the doctrine of “separate but equal” – a principle of American law…

  By Libby Lenkinski Dec 19, 2016 | 2 min read
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  Opinion

  When It Comes to New Israel Envoy David Friedman, Bibi Should Be Careful What He Wishes For

  Oh, the hawkish corner of American Jewry is jubilant with President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of David Friedman to be his ambassador to Israel. The Republican Jewish Coalition is kvelling on Twitter. Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, declared that Friedman — a bankruptcy lawyer with no diplomatic experience — has “the potential…

  By Jane Eisner Dec 19, 2016 | 3 min read
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  Opinion

  Anti-Semitism Is on the Rise From Both Sides. Just Not How You Think.

  Appearances notwithstanding, this year’s presidential election campaign did not introduce anti-Semitism to America. It did, however, bring the ancient hatred out of the shadows and into the spotlight in a way we haven’t seen in years. To paraphrase Abe Foxman, the sewer covers are off. It’s been a sobering time. Still, along with widespread alarm…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 18, 2016 | 4 min read
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  Opinion

  Why We Need Hanukkah’s Message of Righteous Rebellion in Age of Trump

  We Jews, as an outnumbered and persecuted people, have literally hallowed the principle of communal unity. We espouse it not only as a practical value, but also as a religious injunction. The agents of destruction of the Second Temple were the Roman legions. Yet the Talmud tells us that the truer, underlying cause was Jewish…

  By Samuel G. Freedman Dec 18, 2016 | 5 min read
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  Opinion

  How Trump Sends Mixed Message With David Friedman Pick for Israel Envoy

  Donald Trump’s choice of bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman for ambassador to Israel may possibly signal a dramatic policy move in the direction of the Israeli right. Or it might not. It depends on how you read the tea leaves. The messages coming out of Trump Tower are unusually scrambled, even for that gold-plated hothouse. Friedman,…

  By J.J. Goldberg Dec 16, 2016 | 4 min read