In the Forward’s opinion section, you’ll find analysis and essays from diverse corners of the Jewish world.
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Opinion
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Opinion
On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Google Search Still Helps Deniers
It’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the services of the biggest company in the world are still, in effect, helping neo-Nazis spread their propaganda. For months, perhaps years, Google Search has been giving Holocaust deniers a tool to spread their abhorrent views to unsuspecting browsers on the web. After a sustained shaming by various organizations…
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Opinion Arrive at Auschwitz a Tourist, Leave As a Traveler
My 2013 edition of Lonely Planet’s “Europe on a Shoestring” ranks Auschwitz third in “Poland Highlights” — trailing behind the gnome statues of the city of Wrocław, but ahead of the city of Gdańsk. As a Holocaust historian and architectural historian of Auschwitz, I have visited the death camp at least 80 times since my…
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Opinion To Really Love Thy Neighbor, Invite a Syrian Refugee Into Your Home
I’ll never forget the feeling of gratitude and the experience of fellowship that graced my home in 2015. My family and I had been given the opportunity to host a recently settled Syrian refugee family for Thanksgiving. We said yes, but, admittedly, we did so with trepidation. Having internalized some fear of Syrian refugees after…
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Opinion Diversity of Opinion on Israel Strengthened the Women’s March
Dear Editor: Bethany Mandel’s recent op-ed Women’s March Organizers Should Be More Careful About the Company They Keep (column January 24, 2017) foolishly suggests that effective organizing is only possible if we stand in 100% agreement with our allies on every issue. At all times, but particularly in our current political climate, working in broad…
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Opinion If Trump Really Knew the Somalis of Minnesota, He Would Rethink His Cruel Ban on Refugees
On the last Sunday before the presidential election, Donald Trump swooped into the Minneapolis airport for a typically inflammatory rally. At a transit hub with hundreds of Somali employees, in a city with about 25,000 Somali residents, the Republican candidate fed his audience fear, rage and resentment. “Everybody’s reading about the disaster taking place in…
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Opinion How I Came To Grips With My Bias Against Poles — on Visit to Auschwitz
OSWIECIM, Poland (JTA) — I did a shameful thing on my first visit 20 years ago to the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. In a guestbook outside an Auschwitz museum exhibit featuring information on 70,000 Polish non-Jews who were murdered here, I downplayed the significance of their deaths by writing: “Your pain is no credential here,…
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Opinion Did a New York Judge Just Order Orthodox Women To Stay in Unwanted Marriages?
A New York court recently deemed the state’s Get Law, which was enacted to lend the power of the state to women unable to secure a Jewish divorce from their husbands, in large part, unconstitutional. If upheld on appeal, this decision could alter the landscape of Jewish divorce in the United States. At the core…
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Opinion We’ll Lose College Students If Israel Becomes a Right-Wing Republican Cause
(JTA) — For decades, supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship have insisted on strong bipartisanship rather than allying their cause with the Democrats or Republicans. So even while a typical bit of punditry over the past few presidencies was to assert that Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush, or Barack Obama was “the most pro-Israel president…
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Opinion Fault Lines Season 1, Episode 3
A crucial conversation on a two-state solution and potential alternative solutions under Benjamin Netanyahu. Listen to “Season 1, Episode 3” 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….
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Opinion How Erratic Trump Unnerves Even Netanyahu
After eight long years of feuding with Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is approaching Republican newcomer Donald Trump with far more caution and reserve than anyone anticipated. Trump was supposedly the great hope of Netanyahu’s right-wing pro-settlement base. And yet, within hours after Trump’s inauguration Netanyahu was scrambling to restrain allies on his…
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Opinion When Should Religious Leaders Get Political From the Pulpit?
One of the best debates I remember having in rabbinical school was whether a rabbi should speak about politics from the pulpit. In theory it makes sense why a rabbi would try to avoid doing so as God is neither a Republican or a Democrat. The rabbi not only runs the risk of potentially alienating…
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